Rosebowl vs OM: Who 'won"?

[Todd4State]

Oh- and I forgot that they are on repeat violator status for I think five years so that is going to hurt a lot of their tactics as well.

[Political Hack]

It?s been 60 days since punishments were handed out

Not sure. They probably have to review the game logs and see who played during which games and then vacate if they had ineligible players on the field. I suspect it?ll be almos entire seasons, but given the NCAA?s lack of grit, they may just apologize and award them an extra sugar bowl title.

[Todd4State]

They were the first ones we know about. My guess is Ole Miss knew all along. They got rid of him to appease the NCAA.

If they wanted to "appease the NCAA" they would have fired him after the Sugar Bowl win.

What Ole Miss is really trying to avoid is a massive sex scandal for buying prostitutes for players. Ask Penn State and now Michigan State how that goes over with the NCAA. And neither of those two programs were being investigated before the sex scandals started. And that's why they need to be very nice to Tom Mars.

[Turfdawg67]

It doesn?t matter if they had 10, 15, or 20 level 1s. A case as a whole is categorized as level 1,2, or 3 against an institution, and the institution is penalized according to the matrix. You don?t get level 1 penalties for every level 1 infraction. That?s what we didn?t understand, self included, and you still don?t. The committees report states that clearly.

I didn?t say Half a recruiting class this year. I said half a recruiting class. They will lose half a recruiting class over three years. Every d1 coach in America will tell you that is a huge deal.

Hell... then Mullen had us on probation without the NCAA.

[Liverpooldawg]

If they wanted to "appease the NCAA" they would have fired him after the Sugar Bowl win.

What Ole Miss is really trying to avoid is a massive sex scandal for buying prostitutes for players. Ask Penn State and now Michigan State how that goes over with the NCAA. And neither of those two programs were being investigated before the sex scandals started. And that's why they need to be very nice to Tom Mars.

I agree, but they held on to him as long as they thought it was tenable. When it became obvious that it wasn't anymore, they cut him loose. It was pretty convenient that that stuff came to light when it did. I don't believe in that kind of coincidence.

[Goldendawg]

Steve wants money and to feed his ego. Same thing he wanted when State was under investigation. He got hits and money both times. By my account he?s winning personally and professionally at the expense of State fans, but that seems his business. And I?ll readily admit he?s good at it. Kudos are well deserved.

Unfortunately, Ole Miss skated. They sure as shit didn?t ?win? anything though. Losing scholarships, past wins vacated, head coach gone, reputation tarnished with the local and national media, Mars 3 feet up their arse, and a bowl ban and money gone to boot. Should they have gotten more? Absolutely. Did they ?win?? Not even close.

Have they or the NCAA published a list of the games vacated or is there somewhere on the net you can go to see such info? I have seen or heard nothing.

[Todd4State]

I agree, but they held on to him as long as they thought it was tenable. When it became obvious that it wasn't anymore, they cut him loose. It was pretty convenient that that stuff came to light when it did. I don't believe in that kind of coincidence.

They kept him because:

1. He was winning. (First Sugar Bowl is fity years!)

2. Maybe even more importantly to them- he was recruiting. And recruiting the way that they want to.

3. The whole plan all along was to lie to recruits and make them believe that they weren't being investigated and then later that they weren't going on probation. It's kind of hard to make that lie when you just immediately fire your Sugar Bowl winning coach, no? The reason that they wanted to lie was because their plan was to recruit at a high level and hope that the really good players keep them afloat through probation. That's not going to happen like they wanted to. And honestly a lot of that is because they had to get rid of Freeze. The crazy thing assuming the penalties are the same regardless of whether Freeze was still there or not- it would have worked. The thing we'll never know is what the penalties would have been had Freeze stayed on because I suspect that they would have been hit harder.

So, I think Ole Miss really wanted Freeze to stay as long as possible. I don't think they wanted to fire him at all. In fact I wouldn't be surprised at all if they bring him back to replace Luke. If they wanted to conveniently fire him- he went 5-7 with an Egg Bowl loss and had the program under investigation. That would be the more ideal and more convenient time to do it than August when fall camp is starting. They were forced to because they don't want to the FBI sniffing around Oxford because they know that being the school that bought prostitutes for football recruits is SMU level notorious. Whether they get the death penalty or not. I don't know very many parents that would send their sons to a school that was known for doing that.

[Todd4State]

Have they or the NCAA published a list of the games vacated or is there somewhere on the net you can go to see such info? I have seen or heard nothing.

I bet they quietly release it in their media guide.

[cujo]

I bet they quietly release it in their media guide.

Especially if it includes egg bowls 12,14, &15

[Bully75]

If they wanted to "appease the NCAA" they would have fired him after the Sugar Bowl win.

What Ole Miss is really trying to avoid is a massive sex scandal for buying prostitutes for players. Ask Penn State and now Michigan State how that goes over with the NCAA. And neither of those two programs were being investigated before the sex scandals started. And that's why they need to be very nice to Tom Mars.

This!!!!!!

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Ole Miss knew all along that Hugh was making the calls.... it is part of their compliance departments job to compare phone logs with phone bills....any irregularities would be vetted by compliance.

[yjnkdawg]

They were the first ones we know about. My guess is Ole Miss knew all along. They got rid of him to appease the NCAA.

Possibly, but I think Mars let Lee Tyner, the Birmingham Law Firm, or both, know that this was just the beginning and things could get a lot worse for OM. I highly doubt the powers to be of the OM football program would have fired Freeze unless it got down to a have to situation. The powers to be are not those two other guys who sat at the table with Freeze or sat at the table by themselves when Freeze was not there.

[Liverpooldawg]

Ole Miss knew all along that Hugh was making the calls.... it is part of their compliance departments job to compare phone logs with phone bills....any irregularities would be vetted by compliance.

Exactly. Those calls had to have been known about. They didn’t care, till they did.

[Activated Alpha]

I don't believe for one second we will see anything about the prostitutes for recruits scandal or that the NCAA will do anything about it

[yjnkdawg]

I think OM won because when you read all of the documented evidence concerning the vast patterns of violations over a period of time, that OM had, and with the new matrix in place, they could have been basically buried. It appears the NCAA did their work, but the COI dropped the ball and let OM slide ( or in some of our thinking anyway). If so, could somebody have gotten to the COI? Could it have been the SEC Office intervened, or some very influential person or persons in the OM family? That Bama law firm is one of the best in dealing with matters such as this. That book is closed as was already mentioned so we will never know why the COI made the decision they did.

[yjnkdawg]

I don't believe for one second we will see anything about the prostitutes for recruits scandal or that the NCAA will do anything about it

If Freeze hadn't been fired, I bet we would have, but I don't think it would been Bjork releasing the information. I think it is a good thing for OM that Nutt and Mars were finally satisfied.

[spbdawg]

#

[spbdawg]

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[BeastMan]

I think OM won because when you read all of the documented evidence concerning the vast patterns of violations over a period of time, that OM had, and with the new matrix in place, they could have been basically buried. It appears the NCAA did their work, but the COI dropped the ball and let OM slide ( or in some of our thinking anyway). If so, could somebody have gotten to the COI? Could it have been the SEC Office intervened, or some very influential person or persons in the OM family? That Bama law firm is one of the best in dealing with matters such as this. That book is closed as was already mentioned so we will never know why the COI made the decision they did.

This is a strong argument

[yjnkdawg]

Why not? All Tom Mars did was make a public records request...something any American can do. The statute of limitations on these offenses has a very long fuse.

Well for one thing, Mars knew what he was doing and then he also brought a specialist in who is an expert in this type of investigative work. They were able to go deeper, in what lies in those phone records, than the normal person. I would imagine. But anyway, who is going to pursue this? The NCAA apparently could care less, or they are being told to care less?