ESPNOle Miss coach Hugh Freeze told ESPN.com on Monday that he accepts responsibility for the Rebels' NCAA troubles, but adamantly denies that he or anybody on his staff knowingly violated rules.
Ole Miss last week self-imposed the loss of 11 football scholarships over a four-year period from 2015-18 as part of its response to an NCAA Notice of Allegations, stemming from an NCAA investigation into the Rebels' athletic department that began nearly four years ago and turned up 28 rules violations in football, women's basketball and track and field. Of the 13 alleged violations in football, nine were committed on Freeze's watch, and four were the more serious Level I violations.
"The first thing I would say is that I own it. That's part of it when you're the head coach. You take the good with the bad," said Freeze, who's in Sandestin for the SEC spring meetings. "But there's a big difference between making mistakes in recruiting and going out there with the intent to cheat. I don't have any information that anybody on my staff has been involved in any illegal payments to players or offering any inducements to players, and if I did have that information, I would fire them."
Sounds bad for Ole Miss, but I bet this will not be an issue for the rest of the SEC (unfortunately), because even with the "immunity" players won't roll on their current schools.NCAA Enforcement representatives have visited Auburn and Mississippi State, and perhaps at least one more SEC Western Division school, this summer to speak with players who were recruited by Ole Miss. The players were granted immunity from potential NCAA sanctions in exchange for truthful accounts of their recruitment, sources said.
I read it that they were talking to players who had been recruited by Ole Miss but went elsewhere to find out about Ole Miss recruiting. So their immunity is to talk about what Ole Miss did, not their current school.Sounds bad for Ole Miss, but I bet this will not be an issue for the rest of the SEC (unfortunately), because even with the "immunity" players won't roll on their current schools.NCAA Enforcement representatives have visited Auburn and Mississippi State, and perhaps at least one more SEC Western Division school, this summer to speak with players who were recruited by Ole Miss. The players were granted immunity from potential NCAA sanctions in exchange for truthful accounts of their recruitment, sources said.
I read it that they were talking to players who had been recruited by Ole Miss but went elsewhere to find out about Ole Miss recruiting. So their immunity is to talk about what Ole Miss did, not their current school.
NCAA's long investigation of Ole Miss getting longer as it expands probe to rival SEC schools