The Alabama Supreme Court spent about an hour Thursday weighing a fight between the NCAA and Jeremy Pruitt, with the central question coming down to jurisdiction: can DeKalb County hear Pruitt’s lawsuit against the association?
The nine-justice panel heard oral arguments in Dothan’s Houston Academy and did not issue a ruling. A decision will come later.
The NCAA wants the state’s highest court to order the trial court in DeKalb County to throw out Pruitt’s case, saying the court does not have jurisdiction over the organization. Pruitt filed the lawsuit in March 2025 and is seeking $100 million tied to NCAA penalties imposed after Tennessee fired him in 2021. The biggest piece of that punishment was a six-year “show cause” order in 2023, which required schools to get NCAA approval before hiring him.
That order has already been tested in real time. The NCAA gave Jacksonville State the green light in October to hire Pruitt as an analyst, but only under certain conditions.
Then, in December, a DeKalb County judge granted Pruitt an injunction blocking the NCAA from enforcing the show-cause order. That protection did not last; the judge dissolved the injunction in April after Pruitt’s attorneys said in filings that it was not easing schools’ worries about bringing him aboard.
Pruitt’s side has argued the case belongs in Alabama because the NCAA’s penalty was affecting his job prospects there. In filings opposing the NCAA’s petition, his attorneys said the University of Alabama also tried to hire him in 2023, a detail CBS Sports reported.
At that point, Nick Saban was looking for a replacement for departed defensive coordinator Pete Golding. Alabama ultimately hired Kevin Steele, and both coaches retired after the 2023 season.
Pruitt’s attorneys also filed sealed testimony from Saban, which their public filings summarized by saying “that UA did not hire [Pruitt] based on the threat of penalties from the NCAA” during the ongoing investigation at the time.
An excerpt from Saban’s testimony said, “Yeah, I wanted to bring Jeremy back on staff as soon as I could. A, because, you know, I couldn't for a while because of his circumstance.
I was hopeful that when his circumstance got resolved, I would be able to hire him, and could not.” When asked if he was discouraged from hiring Pruitt, Saban said, “Yes.”
The filings also included sealed testimony from former Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, former Florida coach Billy Napier, Georgia coach Kirby Smart and agent Jimmy Sexton. During Thursday’s hearing, justice Brady Mendheim brought up Fisher’s testimony while referring to the Aggies taking “more direct steps” than Alabama to hire Pruitt.
Justice Greg Cook questioned the idea that Alabama’s failed pursuit of Pruitt was enough to anchor the case in the state, saying it was an “effect” of NCAA actions that happened elsewhere, including Tennessee or the organization’s headquarters in Indiana.
The NCAA’s lawyers took the same basic position, arguing the show-cause order was, “not entered against Jeremy Pruitt. The show cause order is entered nationwide as to all of the member institutions,” and that the group did not specifically begin action against Pruitt in Alabama.
Justices pressed that point as well, noting the NCAA’s oversight of the 18 member institutions in the state.
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