The Best read on the Ole Miss situation I have seen so far

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The Rebels’ basic strategy seems to be: throw former AD/bagman Barney Farrar under the bus and admit some allegations, admit the prior acts committed by Houston Nutt’s regime, paint the Mississippi State Bulldogs as some sort of conspiratorial Mayberry Machiavellis masterminding the whole thing — oh, and everyone else lied.

The net effect is to double down on the virginal purity of Hugh Freeze, a man as wronged as anyone in this process, and —aw shucks— how is he supposed to be responsible for things he didn’t know about it. Moreover, aw shucks, the NCAA didn’t let them cross examine a player in the middle of his interview with the COI (which they’re not entitled to do.) And, aw shucks, Mississippi State wouldn’t let their lawyers interview Dan Mullen (a request as inappropriate as it is bizarre, and which they are not entitled to do.)

There are literal bagmen here with sacks full of 10s of 1000s of dollars; there are free clothes, free housing, free lodging, free junkets, sweetheart auto “leases” and “rentals;” and, worse, more than enough of a paper trail and actual witnesses to indict Al Capone’s corpse.

And, let us be honest here too: Ole Miss makes a very tempting target, partially because they have been so stubborn, because of who they are, and because everything just looks so damned bad (even ignoring Laremy Tunsil begging administrator bagmen for momma’s light bill money on Draft night.) Administratively: the Rebels have shown nothing but public defiance; the fact not one coach or administrator was dismissed because of the allegation; the fact boosters have not been disassociated. Programmatically: how quickly the Rebels turned it around based on recruiting; recruiting classes that had more last minute unexpected signing and flip-flops that sent up more smoke than a Wiz Khalifa concert; the brashness of the program both on the field and with police incidents and bizarre suspensions and even more bizarre hospitalizations; a holier-than-thou Tweet machine coach who comes across as a venal hypocrite. Politically: The fact that this is such a PR nightmare for the NCAA and its lauding of amateurism; that Ole Miss is not a marquee program; that Ole Miss’ half-arse response and self-imposed discipline for the initial allegations was so tepid; that the NCAA needs a head on the wall to enforce legislation that says, as Bjork and company do here, “I didn’t know.”

It’s your program. It’s your job to know. And, it’s your head if you don’t.

(Bonus sleazy points to Ole Miss also for breaking the 4th wall of student anonymity and all-but naming Leo Lewis as “Student Athlete 39.” They embedded one of his tweets (with the clapping Heath Ledger Joker gif) as proof of a Starkville conspiracy. Yeah, the Committee on Infractions is going to loooove that power play.)

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