Re: Yahoo: NCAA to formally charge Ole Miss with rules violations (UPDATE: NOA Releas
"Ole Miss is trying to play Auburn and threaten lawsuits unless the NCAAA accepts what they offered in their response." This is exactly what they should do. If they do this, the NCAA will scurry away like a vampire looking at a silver crucifix. The NCAA is still as corrupt as ever, but Auburn made them toothless. The rules are really not rules any longer, but merely suggestions. OM is going to skip away unscathed.
The only problem with this thought process is that Ole Miss has already admitted to the allegations in the NOA and offered a set of sanctions that the NCAA did not agree to. Based on the NCAA's new chart, the allegations warrant much more than Ole Miss has offered.
The SI information is not news. However it does give one insight into how the NCAA came up with the allegations. The only thing at negotiation now is----the severity of the allegations (NCAA says level 1, Ole Miss says level 2). The interaction between the coaching staff and boosters is troubling for the NCAA and Ole Miss doesn't "feel" this should be a problem.
Additionally, the NCAA is in no hurry. The most egregious violations are the ones agreed to by Ole Miss involving ACT fraud. Keep in mind that ULL has a lawsuit pending against ACT that will provide more fireworks with a party accused by the NCAA in both cases (ULL and Ole Miss) who will now be under oath in a public courtroom. The question Ole Miss has to answer eventually is, do they settle or do they expect David Saunders to say anything under oath that might lead to more ACT fraud. The NCAA only hit them with three cases involving Wayne County and those from 2010 under Houston Nutt. Saunders and Ole Miss hate each other. Saunders was on the administrative staff under Cutcliffe for four years, coached under Orgeron for two and was a part of Nutt's administrative staff for a year, 2010. There is a reason those coaches wanted him around and there is absolutely nothing to lead anyone to the belief that the fraud only started in 2010. If it goes back beyond 2010 and the NCAA finds it, Ole Miss is done----------the NCAA is willing to wait.
If Ole Miss is certain they are clean, they will continue to argue and allow it to play out. If they suspect Saunders might know of other occasions when the ACT rules might have been flaunted between 1996 and 2008, all the way back to guys who played for him (but who were recruited under Tommy Tuberville while Ole Miss was on probation the last time and might be on Saunders's coaching staff now at Pearl River Community College?) Ole Miss might want to settle. The clock is ticking. There has been no indication that the Committee on Infractions is not planning on meeting with Ole Miss in August, after which they will have 90 days to announce sanctions. A refusal to settle will mean that anything new, even if it is old, will be reason to charge Ole Miss under the repeat offender clause.
