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kyallie

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There's no way Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze comes out of NCAA violations unscathed - CBSSports.com-/rbr

rbr opEssentially, this can only go one of two ways for Freeze.

The first is that Freeze either was directly involved or at least knew about what was going on, and he was perfectly fine with it. That’s not a good look for anybody.
The second is that all of this went on right under Freeze’s nose without him being the slightest bit aware of it. While this isn’t as ugly on the surface as the first situation, it does nothing to instill much faith in Freeze. He is the head coach, and this is his program. He’s the one ultimately responsible for everything that takes place in and around it. Maybe that’s not fair, but it’s also why Freeze was paid $4.7 million in 2016.
For now, Ole Miss is presenting an united front in the face of the NCAA: Chancellor Vitter, AD Ross Bjork, and Hugh Freeze are all planning on him being there for the long haul — or at least paying lip service to that. Here’s the problem with that strategy, however: As the corollary USC case showed, unrepentant defiance is not the way to dodge the sanction bullet. In fact, that was an aggravating factor when the Committee on Infractions levied sanctions against the Trojans.
Let’s be clear what Ole Miss’ strategy is at this point, too, aside from moderate self-imposed sanctions: The Rebels plan on contesting as much of the evidence as possible, deny what it can, and then pawn off the transgressions as the bad acts of coaches no longer with the program, the former administration, and boosters with whom it has cut ties. But, most of those coaches did not leave because of the investigation; they were the rats seeking dry land as they lept from a sinking ship or were fired/retired following on-field production. Moreover, the blame game is compounded by the Responsibility Clause invoked by the NCAA: Hugh Freeze is going to be held personally liable for those coaches’ actions. I do not see a way that he survives this with his job. And, at this point, saving his future career by avoiding a suspension or Show Cause Order may be the better long-term strategy.
The mud-slinging is not even close to over yet either. Prepare for scorched earth tactics from Ole Miss and boosters and alumni towards its in-state rival, Mississippi State...at a minimum. The lid is off an attempted pay-off of at least one player, and there appears to be credible evidence that it was a bidding war initiated by or participated in by the Bulldogs. That is what Godfrey partly alludes to in his follow-up piece today:
4. The worst possible scenario for the SEC is still in play.
The NCAA’s amended NOA against Ole Miss is a shot to kill, but the amended allegations are built almost entirely on incidents involving players who signed at other universities. SB Nation can confirm that three of the student athletes listed in the amended NOA are current or recent players for other SEC programs.
Obviously Ole Miss can’t retaliate in any formal way. But far from the above-board practices of major programs, there’s a dense network of boosters, university employees, and middlemen who both create and solve problems in recruiting.
Rival coaching staffs file formal complaints against one another regularly, but among individuals who do the actual compensating of recruits, the philosophy of mutually assured destruction has been a loose rule.
Mercy me. The recriminations that are about to follow is going to harken back to the bad ole days in the 90s-aughts when every single team went on probation at least once. This will be a test of Sankey’s leadership to be sure. As Godfrey notes, Mike Slive had instilled some serious Omerta among member institutions.
(BTW: If the SBN sources mentioned above are the same or similar to ours, then two of those players are presently at Mississippi State, and one is at Auburn.)
 

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