Why are they trying so hard to save the Savior?

My favorite statement of the entire 2017 Notice of Allegations to OM:

Page 30: LAST Statement: Any additional information or comments regarding this case are welcome.

Or he knows enough to sell out the university (Archie) to help his own show cause fight.

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Originally Posted by Johnson85

I don't think it's that. I think that Freeze was popular enough with people with pull that Bjork couldn't survive firing him (not clear Bjork could have survived regardless with three sports having major infractions), so the smart play for Bjork was to throw his lot in with Freeze. If UM had it to do over again, they very well might do it different, but their last shot to act meaningfully contrite was probably shortly after the draft night incident. Fire freeze (and maybe Bjork) then, submit some stiff self imposed penalties that are still south of what USCw got, and hope for the best.

Or maybe they looked and decided they would have to at minimum impose USCw level sanctions and decided they might as well roll the dice and hope for a Miami type screwup from the NCAA.

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Keeping Freeze, and even extending his contract, is no risk to Ole Miss. They already know that the hammer cometh. As long as they keep him, they can say that they believe in him and dispute the failure to monitor/LOIC charges. If the COI gives him a show cause, they can fire him for cause and not be on the hook for additional money. If they had fired him when all of this went down, they probably would have been on the hook for some amount of a buy out, and they would have been admitting that he wasn't monitoring or controlling the program. It's quite literally the last card they have to play.

They have to hang on to him until the NCAA rules. When they do, Ole Miss will have their out to fire him.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

That and they are probably worried that Feeze will roll on them like Barney.

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Guess who knows where the evidence is buried...... freezus is going to roll them.....
Saunders, Vaughn, Kiffin and Farrar..... deserve there day in the NCAA tell ALL COI..... coming to a town nearest to you. Wonder if the SEC Network could carry this LIVE???????

I think there may be a bit or MORE truth in pretty much all of the serious responses in this thread.

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Originally Posted by Pinto

I can't figure this out so please help. Why is it so important for UM to save Freeze? Why is he bigger than the program and really the university?

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Dan Wolken wants to know this as well...
http://amp.usatoday.com/story/102558976/

As has been pointed out in a number of posts today, the strategy to retain Freeze was a high risk/high return gamble. The risk is that if the strategy fails and the NCAA sees it for the scam it appears to be and then nukes your athletic programs back to the stone age. The rewards could be dismissal of some of the most serious allegations (LOIC and failure to monitor in particular) and mitigating some of the others with corresponding reductions in penalties. The decision to follow this strategy must have been made early on in the process. They have followed it unerringly from the beginning.

A better strategy early on may have been to fire the entire athletic department, plead guilty to the first NOA and beg for mercy. In that case the NCAA may have only nuked them back to the dark ages.

Apparently, some adjustments were made to this strategy along the way. At some point they decided to throw Barney under the bus. This is the most glaring of their errors.

Regardless, I think the COI will see through the jibberish that is their response. Stone Age here they come.

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Originally Posted by smootness

This. They're going with the riskiest strategy with the belief that it also has the biggest potential reward, which is being able to deny the most serious charges, blame it on others, take their dose of penalties, keep Freeze, and not get hammered.

I do not share that belief and think they're going to end up with the downside, which is getting hammered harder because they still refuse to cooperate or change course.

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Originally Posted by Random Poster

Because no other coach will work hand in hand with the Network to get players. They know the Network is their only way to remain relevant in football.

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I mean, surely the NCAA realizes their complete defense is to save Freeze so they can continue to cheat?

If the NCAA realizes that, this is going to go nuclear