{"id":831726,"date":"2026-07-29T17:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/831726\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T17:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:34:10","slug":"tennessees-arion-carter-suspended-by-ncaa-over-427-flight-to-nfl-pre-draft-training-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/831726\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee’s Arion Carter Suspended by NCAA Over $427 Flight to NFL Pre-Draft Training Facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter has been suspended two games after his agent paid for a flight to an NFL training facility this offseason, Adam Sparks<\/a> of the Knoxville News Sentinel reported Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Carter declared for the NFL draft in December before withdrawing<\/a> and ultimately deciding to return to Tennessee in January.<\/p>\n

According to Sparks, a Tennessee spokesperson confirmed Carter’s suspension was related to his agent paying for a $427 flight to a training facility during that predraft process. Carter paid his agent back for the flight, according to Sparks. <\/p>\n

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel pushed back against the suspension, which will sideline Carter for the Volunteers’ first two games of the 2026 season, Sparks reported.<\/p>\n

“We disagree with the NCAA’s ruling on punishing Arion with a multi-game suspension this fall,” Heupel said in a statement shared with Sparks. “Arion made the right decision for his future health and well-being.”<\/p>\n

The NCAA still ruled the linebacker committed a Level III violation and issued a three-game suspension that was reduced to two games following appeal by Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Carter will be eligible to return for a Sept. 19 matchup against Kennesaw State, per Sparks.<\/p>\n

According to Sparks, Tennessee argued Carter “acted in good faith” and said the linebacker would have pursued an NFL career had his plans not been changed by injury.<\/p>\n

Carter confirmed<\/a> last week at SEC Media Days he withdrew from the draft after learning he needed surgery on an issue related to the turf toe he played through in 2025.<\/p>\n

The linebacker’s NFL workout likely would have taken place weeks after the NCAA sent out a memo<\/a> to student-athletes about the process leading up to the 2026 NFL draft.<\/p>\n

The NCAA memo referred to what the organization described as a phase where athletes “test the waters” regarding a potential professional career.<\/p>\n

During that phase, the NCAA stated that only NFL teams can pay for expenses related to players attending workouts or tryouts with the team.<\/p>\n

“It is not permissible for any other individual (e.g., agent, runner or advisor) to pay for your expenses in conjunction with any tryout or workout with a professional team,” the memo read.<\/p>\n

The memo also stated players are not allowed to receive benefits from agents including transportation.<\/p>\n

Carter said<\/a> during his media days appearance last week he felt he had “made the greatest decision I possibly could have made” by choosing to come back to Tennessee.<\/p>\n

The Volunteers could lean on Penn State transfer Amare Campbell alongside returning players like Edwin Spillman and Jeremiah Telander until Carter is able to make his return later this fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter has been suspended two games after his agent paid for a flight to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-831726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}