They let USC players transfer out with no restriction. They do that all the time with major penalties.
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Besides, if major penalties are levied against Ole Miss it could be argued they signed them on false pretense. I have seen players get out of LOIs for less.
You are right that the NCAA did let some USC players transfer, but only Juniors and Seniors. Furthermore, the PAC 10 blocked them from going anywhere else in the conference. So even under that scenario, you still wouldn't see signees from the most recent recruiting classes at OM being released without having to sit a year. OM is going to hang onto their signees this year unless they decide that they don't mind sitting out the standard year to find someplace else.
What false pretense? At this point, the whole world knows they are under major NCAA scrutiny right now as the NOA and Tunsil stuff has been in the news for months. Technically, all the players from their '16 class knew about it too, although they had limited time to find other landing spots due to how close it was to signing day when the Forde article leaked. Is it possible that the OM staff tried to soften the blow with some of these kids by talking about sanctions not being that bad? Absolutely. But they still chose to believe it. Nobody in the 2016 or 2017 signing classes can plea ignorance on the NCAA stuff, and I don't think the NCAA is going to have sympathy for any of them.