As The Grove Freezes

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The NCAA has formally charged the University of Mississippi with dozens of rules violations in three sports, multiple sources told Yahoo Sports. 

The school has received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA enforcement staff alleging roughly 30 violations in football, women’s basketball and track and field, sources told Yahoo. It is unclear at present what the breakdown is in terms of violations by sport. The NCAA does not comment on current, pending or potential investigations. 

Calls to officials at Mississippi and the Southeastern Conference were not immediately returned. 

This is the latest step in a long, laborious NCAA investigation, part of which predates football coach Hugh Freeze’s arrival at Ole Miss in 2012. Yahoo Sports first reported about the investigation in October 2014. 

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Mississippi’s football recruiting successes in recent years under Freeze have taken the Southeastern Conference by storm – and rankled some rivals. Multiple SEC coaches and administrators have voiced concerns about Ole Miss to the conference office, sources said. Shortly before National Signing Day in 2013, Freeze took to Twitter and challenged anyone who had facts showing the Rebels were breaking rules to email the school’s compliance office. 

This past football season, Mississippi offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil – one of the highest-rated recruits in program history – sat out seven games for accepting impermissible benefits. Tunsil, according to an Ole Miss release, was found to have accepted “use of three separate loaner vehicles over a sixth-month period without payment, a four-month interest-free promissory note on a $3,000 down payment for purchasing a used vehicle, two nights of lodging at a local home, an airline ticket purchased by a friend of a teammate, and one day use of a rental vehicle. In addition, it was determined that Tunsil was not completely forthcoming when initially questioned by NCAA investigators regarding the loaner vehicles.” Tunsil has since declared for the NFL draft and is expected to be a high first-round pick. 

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Some of the allegations regarding the football program date back to previous coach Houston Nutt, but others involve current coach Hugh Freeze's tenure, a person familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press on Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

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Outside counsel for the University of Mississippi received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA - another step in a more than three-year process. Included in the notice are alleged violations of NCAA bylaws in women's basketball in 2012; track and field in 2012-13; and in football, with many of the allegations dating back to the former football staff in 2010 and the withholding and reinstatement process around Laremy Tunsil in fall of 2015. 

To be clear, the NCAA has only brought allegations, and as part of the NCAA process, the University and others have 90 days to issue a response. We’ve been transparent throughout this process, and it is important to note that most of the football allegations are based upon facts that have been publicly disclosed previously in “self-reports” and reinstatement requests or have been reported publicly in connection with another NCAA case. 

Out of fairness to the individuals involved and the integrity of the NCAA process, we will not provide further details or comment until everyone has had an opportunity to review the allegations and respond. Once they do so, we will release the official notice and the university’s response. In all three sports, I am confident in the leadership of our current head coaches and the manner in which they operate their programs.

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Mississippi's football program was cited by the NCAA in nearly half of the 28 rules violations levied against the school in the Notice of Allegations the university recently received, said a person with knowledge of the investigation.

The person said Tuesday that 13 allegations involve the football program, and nine of those occurred during current coach Hugh Freeze's tenure. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The violations are a mix of Level I — which the NCAA considers most serious — and Level II and III. Many have already been self-reported by the school.

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Vaughn coached for the Rebels from 2008 to 2011 and served as the team’s defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator. Sources tell Horns247 the facts against Vaughn “were damning."

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