Last December, the NCAA announced it would punish Ole Miss with an additional bowl ban for the 2018 season, four years of probation and scholarship reductions following its years-long investigation into the school’s football program for alleged recruiting violations.
While former head coach Hugh Freeze came out relatively unscathed, the school was hit fairly hard by the NCAA.
While Ole Miss accepted several of the punishments handed down by the NCAA, the school took issue with two specific penalties given out by the Committee on Infractions (COI): the dreaded lack of institutional control charge and the assertion that Rebel Rags, an Oxford-based Ole Miss retailer, provided impermissible recruiting inducements to prospects.
The school’s appeal to the NCAA has already been filed but was publicly released Wednesday. The document is 46 pages and a terrific read if legal jargon is your cup of tea. The school’s conclusion, in which Ole Miss asks the 2018 bowl ban to be lifted, to its appeal has been copied below:
Conclusion:
The COI abused its discretion, departed from precedent, committed procedural errors and reached factual conclusions inconsistent with the evidence. Accordingly, the University requests:
- That the postseason ban for the football program for the 2018 season be vacated (PenaltyVII.5.);
- That the limitation on football unofficial visits for the full-term of the University’s probationary period be lifted
- That the factual finding as to Violation IV.P. be overturned; and
- That the factual finding as to Violation IV.G. be overturned.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
