re: Miss State LB Leo Lewis received $21,000 before National Signing Day from 2 SEC schools

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I don't think the point of the article is to say Miss State is getting in trouble. It's questioning how the NCAA can decide what he says against Ole Miss is credible and what he said about State is not. I'm biased towards Ole Miss, but I would think someone who is completely objective would have issues taking Lewis at his word about what Ole Miss gave him when the NCAA says the information given on State was not. Either he is credible on both accounts or he's not. I know this was written by an Ole Miss guy, so what I said above is only based on if the article was accurate in describing what Lewis told the NCAA and their actions.

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Firstly, you have a very rational outlook on things and that should be commended.

The NCAA doesn't go entirely on the testimony of student athletes. What they do is find hard evidence and then get it corroborated by one of the parties involved. In many situations, the boosters involved are unwilling to be forthright and the NCAA has no control over that. They do however have control over the players as they can rule them ineligible.

In the Leo Lewis situation, they had evidence that he was paid by people associated with Ole Miss. They go to him and basically say "we know you were paid and will therefore be ineligible unless you come totally clean and fill in some of the gaps on this". Once he does this they have Ole Miss dead to rights.

When he admits to taking money from State, while it might be true and they may believe it to be true, they won't go entirely on his testimony. They need some hard evidence. It's possible that they never had any. It's even possible that they never really looked for any(which is hypocritical, but State also wasn't the target of a years long investigation).

People also need to understand that immunity is one of the very few ways the NCAA can get people to talk. If they give a player immunity for something and then nail the school based on his testimony, while perfectly within the NCAA rules, it undermines the immunity technique. Schools are going to be more reluctant to allow their players to cooperate going forward, and that eliminates a very useful tool the NCAA has