Ole Miss / NCAA - Inside Perspective

[TXDawg]

I've been around this site for a while and have never claimed to be someone with "sources". I still don't consider that to be the case, but I had a very interesting encounter this weekend and wanted to share.

I was travelling this weekend and, like always, was wearing Mississippi State gear. As I'm sitting in the spectator area of the event I was attending, a guy sits next to me and asks if I'm a Mississippi State fan. I say yes and he proceeds to tell a few stories of people he knows with State connections. He then asks if I've been following "the NCAA stuff.?" I ask if he means the stuff with Ole Miss (assuming he had mistaken State and Ole Miss). He confirms he means Ole Miss and I tell him I was watching it pretty closely.

Turns out this guy is the attorney for one of the "named parties" in the NCAA case...he was in the room in Covington for the meeting between the COI and Ole Miss. We ended up having about a 30 minute conversation regarding the investigation, the punishment(s), and what's still to come. Obviously, I can't share all of what he said, but here are a few highlights:

• In his opinion, the level of sanctions Ole Miss received was heavily influenced by their strategy of self-imposing restrictions in advance of the hearing and NCAA ruling. I told him I thought they got off light; he didn't disagree.

• He said that the narrative that everything was done by rogue staffers and rogue boosters was completely false and he was SHOCKED that Freeze didn't get a show cause.

• He's surprised that Bjork has been able to retain his position but thinks the current situation with Patterson and the other transfers may be the nail in the coffin.

• He's involved on the periphery of the Patterson waiver request but is very familiar with the situation and is almost certain that Patterson's waiver will be granted and Ole Miss will end up looking very bad in the process.

• He said the RR suit is moving forward. He expects depositions to be held this summer and thinks the depositions will be "a circus." I asked him if Ole Miss really wants these depositions to happen or if they'd prefer the case to just go away. He replied that Merkel is really good, but the problem he has is that facts are facts. He also said "I don't know what people are going to say under oath, but I'm not sure anyone involved really wants this to move forward." His list of anticipated deposed parties included Lewis, Jones, Miller, Mullen, Freeze, Farrar, Warren, Sheridan, and others.

Great guy, great conversation. I don't think we'll ever know all that went on. He did imply that there was more that would come out - and I don't think he was just referring to RR.