Citing its own sources, ESPN.com later backed up the AP’s report and quoted Ole Miss officials stating the NCAA’s NOA contained “no surprises”. The HQ knew the sports involved- football, women’s hoops, and track and field- but didn’t know the scope.
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“We’re not going to run away from anything”, Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork said last Wednesday.
The Associated Press reports that 13 of the 28 violations levied against Ole Miss by the NCAA are in relation to their football program. “They are not investigating anything else at Ole Miss”. The comment did not get into specifics, because as he later went on to say was in “fairness to the individuals involved and the integrity of the NCAA process”; but the comments were undoubtedly about damage control.
Ole Miss held Tunsil out of the team’s first seven games, thus potentially saving themselves from sanctions for using a player who might have been deemed ineligible later on.
Thirteen of Ole Miss’ NCAA violations involve the football program.
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The 13 football allegations are made up of Level I, II, and III violations, The AP reported, but it is unclear if Freeze was charged with any of the more severe ones. But violations of NCAA rules could have the Rebels on the outside looking in when it comes to postseason play. University officials believe the documents should remain confidential while the investigations is underway and will not release any further info. A separate NCAA probe from previous year involving Louisiana-Lafayette and Saunders also involved Ole Miss. Numerous violations have already been self-reported by the school. Freeze became the Ole Miss head coach in December 2011. Saunders was given an eight-year show-cause in the Louisiana-Lafayette case after the NCAA ruled he made an effort to arrange fraudulent college entrance exam scores for recruits. ULL was put on probation for two years and lost 11 scholarships over three seasons.
