Vitter is Pontius Pilate

[BeastMan]

A lot of people are wondering why Freeze got extended to the max and Kennedy did not. There are a few things of note in this deal but let's get the 2 minor parts out of the way. (1) Bjork has no say in this. It's all Vitter. He is the boss and is making the decisions. (2) AK is being sent a message to go to the NCAAs sooner rather than later. I don't think they are serious about getting rid of him but it sends the message to the fans/donors that they are serious about basketball with the new arena.

Now on to the Freeze contract extension. To understand this, the first thing you have to do is throw out how ridiculous it looks on the surface. Why extend a guy that went 5-7, lost his rivalry game, and is facing the most significant NCAA sanctions since SMU? Makes no sense right? Wrong. It's all about signaling and posturing. Vitter has to walk a tight rope that keeps donors and the fan base happy while protecting his own interest. Nothing sends the message that we stand behind our guy more than extending him. That makes him happy, it makes his staff that is under pressure happy, and it makes a fan base that is 100% behind him happy. It doesn't matter what the rest of the country thinks. It matters what OM folks think because they are who is writing the checks and that is what Vitter answers too ultimately.

What Vitter is smart enough to understand is that he has a back-door he can use should this thing no nuclear. Should the NCAA sanctions go bad for OM, and Freeze personally, he can fire Freeze for cause and not be on the hook for anything. At worst, he can use "at cause firing" as a resignation leverage tool and give him pennies on the dollar to leave gracefully which I think is more likely, should it go bad. What Vitter has done by extending Freeze is stand in front of the OM family and washed his hands of Freeze. He can truthfully say he's done everything he can to back him to placate the base/donors but can also say he had no choice as a later date (i.e. it was the NCAA, not me). In my view, it's actually incredibly smart positioning and message signaling by Vitter. He understands he inherited a bad situation and is positioning himself where he can minimize any fallout he may get. He's covering himself from all angles.

[Johnson85]

I think it's simpler than all that.

Bjork has to know that when Freeze goes, he almost certainly goes. So Bjork isn't going to push for Freeze to go and he might as well throw his full support behind him.

Vitter knows that he is sitting on an inherited time bomb. There are no good options right now. The NCAA is going to get their pound of flesh even if they started acting contrite, and the things that would signal they actually are contrite (firing Freeze and Bjork, significant self-imposed sanctions, etc) would infuriate a significant portion of the fanbase while likely moving the sanctions from (with the exception of SMU) worst sanctions in history by a mile to worst sanctions in history by a slight amount.

Vitter may get slammed for deferring to Bjork even with all the smoke going on right now, but he'll definitely get slammed if he puts his finger prints on it now because there is no good option. Might as well defer to Bjork and hope that he can avoid taking ownership until it's clear everybody must go, and then just hope he can throw Bjork under the bus to save his job.

The basketball thing looks funny compared to Freeze, but I think it's just a separate and normal thing. Kennedy has performed pretty well versus their history and the resources they have invested. Now UM is just signalling to Kennedy that expectations have increased with increased investment.

[Political Hack]

1) there's zero doubt it's posturing.

2) they can still fire him without financial repercussion in 2 months once the NCAA sanctions are handed down.

3) freeze knows where the bodies are buried going back to coach O's days on the plantation. They have to have Freeze squarely on their side going through the investigation. Once it's over, they can throw him out without having to worry about him ratting themnout to the NCAA.

[SaintDawg]

[BeardoMSU]

[JDog13]

Vitter isn't the only one that can extend Freeze.

[CadaverDawg]

Vitter isn't the only one that can extend Freeze.

Lol

[Bully13]

Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name, but what's puzzling you is the nature of my game.

[msstatelp1]

Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name, but what's puzzling you is the nature of my game.

That's kinda appropriate for this situation. How many times has everyone outside the OM fan base looked at them and wondered WTF is going on over there.

[Jarius]

It may not help with the NCAA if they fired Freeze at this point, but it's damn sure gonna hurt when they walk into the COI hearing with a coach they just extended after getting 21 level 1 violations put on his program. It's not smart at all. He's going to have to be fired in 5 months anyway, so extending him is doing nothing more than pissing off the people that are about to judge them for noncompliance. They just committed 21 major violations and then after the NCAA investigators levied a charge that should get any coach fired, OM just said "suck my stick" to the judge. Not firing Freeze was stupid. Extending him after not firing him was just complete idiocy.

[BeastMan]

It may not help with the NCAA if they fired Freeze at this point, but it's damn sure gonna hurt when they walk into the COI hearing with a coach they just extended after getting 21 level 1 violations put on his program. It's not smart at all. He's going to have to be fired in 5 months anyway, so extending him is doing nothing more than pissing off the people that are about to judge them for noncompliance. They just committed 21 major violations and then after the NCAA investigators levied a charge that should get any coach fired, OM just said "suck my stick" to the judge. Not firing Freeze was stupid. Extending him after not firing him was just complete idiocy.

But this is the thing, the NCAA doesn't donate to OM. Fans do. If he doesn't extend Freeze he risks losing money. That would be "bowing down to the evil NCAA" in the eyes of that fan base. If it goes bad, a lot of that money dries up regardless. Might as well keep getting it now.

[Jarius]

But this is the thing, the NCAA doesn't donate to OM. Fans do. If he doesn't extend Freeze he risks losing money. That would be "bowing down to the evil NCAA" in the eyes of that fan base. If it goes bad, a lot of that money dries up regardless. Might as well keep getting it now.

And fans are going to be pissed even longer if rubbing it in the NCAA's face and extending a coach who has zero chance of Not getting a show cause gets them a 3 year bowl ban and 35 scholarships instead of a 2 year bowl ban and 25. They didn't have to extend him to show that they are behind him and calm the natives. Those idiots have been behind him this entire time without knowing he got extended. He still had 3 years left on his current deal. Announcing an extension is rubbing it in your executioner's face right before he chops your head off. Yea, it will get his fans excited for a few months. Then, he gets fired anyway and the punishment is worse, which makes the finances worse. It's idiotic and short sighted.

[sandwolf]

Yea, it will get his fans excited for a few months. Then, he gets fired anyway and the punishment is worse, which makes the finances worse. It's idiotic and short sighted.

Absolutely. The vast majority of our fans (myself included) bitched non-stop about the way our administration handled the Will Redmond situation.....we were convinced that our administration was incompetent, didn't have the balls to fight the NCAA, etc. Well, after watching this OM fiasco play out, I am glad that our decision makers had the spine to address that situation with the big picture in mind, even though they took a beating for it in the near term. They may not have handled everything perfectly, but they got it handled quickly with minimal damage done.

[LockeDawg]

And fans are going to be pissed even longer if rubbing it in the NCAA's face and extending a coach who has zero chance of Not getting a show cause gets them a 3 year bowl ban and 35 scholarships instead of a 2 year bowl ban and 25. They didn't have to extend him to show that they are behind him and calm the natives. Those idiots have been behind him this entire time without knowing he got extended. He still had 3 years left on his current deal. Announcing an extension is rubbing it in your executioner's face right before he chops your head off. Yea, it will get his fans excited for a few months. Then, he gets fired anyway and the punishment is worse, which makes the finances worse. It's idiotic and short sighted.

Yep - no long term logic was used at all. They did not extend his contract to soothe the fanbase because the fans and supporters were behind Freeze before they even knew there was an extension. They've been praying for him for over 2 yrs now and throwing blessings his way since their Administration owned up to the fact that there actually was an investigation in the first place. Those people have been lied to and lead around by their nose through this whole thing. They were ill advised to extend his contract in the midst of an on-going investigation which resulted in a Failure to Monitor tag on their coach, and a LOIC tag on the entire institution. The fact that the BOT approved the extension is baffling.

[Political Hack]

Yep - no long term logic was used at all. They did not extend his contract to soothe the fanbase because the fans and supporters were behind Freeze before they even knew there was an extension. They've been praying for him for over 2 yrs now and throwing blessings his way since their Administration owned up to the fact that there actually was an investigation in the first place. Those people have been lied to and lead around by their nose through this whole thing. They were ill advised to extend his contract in the midst of an on-going investigation which resulted in a Failure to Monitor tag on their coach, and a LOIC tag on the entire institution. The fact that the BOT approved the extension is baffling.

"Win the day"

I think sometimes they seriously just apply that without thought given to the longer term repercussions. Either that or they think their fan base is too stupid to call them out on it.

[HSVDawg]

It may not help with the NCAA if they fired Freeze at this point, but it's damn sure gonna hurt when they walk into the COI hearing with a coach they just extended after getting 21 level 1 violations put on his program. It's not smart at all. He's going to have to be fired in 5 months anyway, so extending him is doing nothing more than pissing off the people that are about to judge them for noncompliance. They just committed 21 major violations and then after the NCAA investigators levied a charge that should get any coach fired, OM just said "suck my stick" to the judge. Not firing Freeze was stupid. Extending him after not firing him was just complete idiocy.

Exactly.

[Bully13]

Me damned sure the pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate.

[Spiderman]

Me damned sure the pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate.

+1 for any reference to the Stones

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Bjork isn't safe either...LOIC falls on him as well...

[HSVDawg]

It's obviously posturing. There's no questioning that. The question, if you're an OM fan, is how the hell does Freeze get an extension after he just went 5-7 and just took it balls deep from his biggest rival at home by a 5 TD margin? Throw out the whole NCAA investigation for a second and just look at it from that angle. I'd be pissed if I were an OM fan.

The other side of it is that giving Freeze an extension is no way "smart" in terms of the message in sends the NCAA. Ole Miss is screwed, the NCAA knows OM is screwed, and more importantly, the NCAA knows that OM knows they are screwed. So, this public show of support is a direct thumb in the eye to the NCAA and that is not going to help their eventual punishment get any more lenient. This was nothing more than the OM admin doing more of what they have been doing this whole time, which is short term PR tapdancing that is only going to hurt their long term outlook even more.