Plowman is a competent chancellor, and she's doing her job. Final decisionmaking at this level goes up the chain. An NCAA investigation, not to mention a $20MM+ decision that would dramatically impact the engine of the UTAD, is not unilaterally her responsibility. Nor is it her area of expertise.
Most schools with resources hire an outside firm to provide counsel during an investigation. It has become SOP for high-profile programs, especially those with intense media scrutiny, and most go with Mike Glazier. Retaining his firm does not mean looking to fire with cause, though that is sometimes the case. Glazier reviews the evidence gathered in the internal investigation, conducts his own interviews with those central to it and provides strategy and counsel for presenting and defending a case to the NCAA. He provides NCAA expertise that UT doesn't have and acts as a middleman in dealing with the NCAA. He identifies problems and helps a school prevent them from becoming bigger problems.
Anybody who has been putting specific dates on this is someone who's guessing. While UT continues to work through the situation, the AD and HC continue to do their jobs. UT is keeping a lid on things, but it isn't true that only Plowman knows what's going on. UT legal, compliance, the AD, the President and the inner circle know what's happening. Plowman is doing a fine job, but she isn't a one-woman show. As you correctly pointed out, she has decisionmakers above her, they're in the loop and they will come to a consensus-- on their timeline.
