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NCAA Levels New Allegations Against the Rebels

At this moment, it must feel like the Sword of Damocles is hanging over the University of Mississippi’s football program. But the question isn’t if the sword will fall but when it will.

In this case, the sword is the NCAA, and the Rebels must feel like they are hanging on by a single strand of hair a horse’s tail. http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/18743461/ole-miss-rebels-self-impose-1-year-postseason-ban-2017">UM received new notice of allegations from the NCAA, http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/2/22/14665502/ole-miss-postseason-bowl-ban-2017">including eight more charges.

The biggest and potentially most devastating new charge is a lack of institutional control and Head Coach Hugh Freeze failing to monitor his coaching staff. As the NCAA continued to dig into the Rebels’ sports programs, the football program now has 21 violations.

Besides the lack of institutional control and Freeze’s failure to monitor, here are the seven new allegations.

A recruit was allowed to hunt on property that a booster owned while UM was recruiting him, and he was allowed to hunt again on the property after signing with the school.

From March 2014 to January 2015, a former staff member provided improper inducements in the form of lodging and transportation valued at $2,272 for two potential recruits. Both recruits signed with other programs.

A former staff member provided false and misleading information to the university and the NCAA about his involvement in recruiting violations.

Another former staff member facilitated a recruit’s meeting with two boosters to receive cash payments from $13,000 to $15,000. That https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/ole-miss-football/ole-miss-allegedly-paid-thousands-dollars-players-signed-elsewhere/">recruit didn’t sign with the Rebels.

Another former staff member allowed one associate of a recruit and two other potential recruits to receive merchandise totaling $2,800 from a booster-owned store.

In 2014 a current Rebels coach made improper in-person and off-campus contact with a recruit.

A booster gave free food and drink at the booster’s restaurant that totaled between $200 and $600 in improper benefits.

Amazingly, none of the new allegations came from the draft night fallout from former offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil. A screenshot of texts between Tunsil and Assistant Athletic Director John Miller concerned Tunsil getting money from Barney Farrar to play his mother’s gas bill.

Rebels https://olemiss.rivals.com/news/transcript-ole-miss-releases-video-message-regarding-ncaa-noa">Athletic Director Ross Bjork said that the school agrees that the NCAA has enough evidence to prove three of the allegations. He said the university would fight the other charges, including the lack of institutional control and Freeze’s lack of monitoring the staff.

In response to the new allegations, the Rebels imposed one-year bowl ban for the 2017 season. UM will have to forfeit its share of SEC postseason revenue for the coming season, which could be $7.8 million or more.

UM has 90 days to respond to the new notice of allegations and will have a hearing, possibly this summer, with the Committee on Infractions to discuss penalties. The committee can accept the Rebels’ self-imposed sanctions of a loss of 11 total scholarships stretched from 2015 to 2018 and the bowl ban.

The committee could decide that the university didn’t go far enough in its punishment and level its own sanctions on the program. Even the head coach could end up with suspension if the committee decides to come down hard on the program.

At this point it seems unlikely that the UM program will escape this mess with the self-imposed penalties. Bjork is standing by Freeze, and if things get worse, both could end up going down with the ship.

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