Don't blame Ole Miss for circling the wagons...blame the NCAA

Every time a major program has tried to work with the NCAA and come clean during an investigation, they've gotten hammered. Time and again the NCAA has thanked the compliance department, praised their efforts...and then crushed the program. The NCAA is the most ineffective and arbitrary enforcement organization ever known. So when a school like Ole Miss sees what has happened to other programs like Alabama and USC, where rules WERE broken but the compliance office tried to be transparent, you can't blame Ole Miss for learning the clear lesson: when the NCAA comes investigating, you let them do their work and don't give them any help.

Programs that have gotten nailed in the past have frequently had good arguments for why the penalties and/or the process wasn't fair. But let's face it - nobody is interested when the guilty is overpunished. Most people just consider it whining if a rule breaker doesn't get due process or penalties appropriate to the violations. So you just have to suck it up and take whatever the NCAA wants to hand out.

In this atmosphere, you may as well just brace yourself and don't give them any help, because that approach doesn't make it any better.