NCAA has nothing, on fishing expedition

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Hugh Kellenberger | The Clarion-Ledger

4 hours ago

Forget Cleveland State. The NCAA is so mad at Ole Miss it’s just going to hammer Ole Miss. For months I’ve been saying that if the violations contained in the original Notice of Allegations were all the NCAA had on the Rebels after a four-year investigation, then Ole Miss would get hit but it would survive. But if the NCAA is going around to other Southeastern Conference schools (including Auburn and Mississippi State) and offering immunity to players for “truthful accounts of their recruitment,” as Yahoo Sports reported Thursday morning, then let’s call it for what it is. It’s a fishing expedition, and the NCAA is not leaving until they have caught their limit.

Those Laremy Tunsil text messages made the NCAA look bad — you spent how long investigating one program, and you could not find the star offensive tackle texting a staff member to ask for cash? Even with his (now former) stepfather willing to sit down for how many interviews with you? So the NCAA is going to do what it is going to do — it’s going to drag this case on for as long as it can, until it gets what it wants and that’s to drop the full weight of its power on Ole Miss’ head. It’s Miami, Southern Call and Penn State now: the NCAA’s enforcement division has decided on a verdict, and now it’s just a matter of building the case to get to it.

That strategy has blown up in the NCAA's face before, but all three programs were damaged afterwards. Miami and Penn State are still fighting to get back. I do not know what ultimately comes of at least talking to Auburn and Mississippi State players about their experiences with Ole Miss, because it’s not like immunity suddenly gets a man to bare his soul for any number of reasons. Plus, any sort of admittance of anything improper would then bring up the immediate and obvious follow-up question, “So why are you here instead of there?” That’s an even trickier question to answer.


Still, maybe something comes of it. And if it does not, the NCAA will just move on to the next course of action. It has plenty of time, and while it’s doing that it’ll punish Ole Miss by hurting its recruiting — “Hey there, Five Star Prospect, are you sure you want to sign with Ole Miss? I can’t say what’s going to happen, but something may happen.”

At some point Ole Miss will have to reconsider its stance towards the NCAA, which has always been one of absolute respect and deference. What has that really gotten Ole Miss? Its fans, and I’m sure some people in the administration building, are long past ready to go on the offensive over this. Will athletics director Ross Bjork join them? Ultimately his reputation and career depends on the results of the investigation the same way it does for Hugh Freeze and other members of the coaching staff.

We know where NCAA wants this investigation to go. It’s just still figuring out how to get there.

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