The 31 Suspicious Emails Buried by Ole Miss Compliance

October 13, 2012; Oxford, MS, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Hugh Freeze celebrates their 41-20 win over the Auburn Tigers with his wife Jill Freeze at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook – USA TODAY Sports

About a month ago, our friend and fellow Blogger Beast Man Steve posted something that really piqued my interest. He titled his piece “Ole Miss Compliance Wins Again“. He brought up how Ole Miss had buried some emails that were written in response to a tweet (since deleted) by Hugh Freeze right before National Signing Day in 2013. Freeze was getting tired of people accusing him and his staff of improper recruiting methods and challenged anyone with evidence to email Ole Miss compliance. Turns out, 85 people did exactly that.

The reason we know this is because Kyle Veazey, former beat writer for both Mississippi State and Ole Miss at the Clarion Ledger, submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for those emails since they were sent to a public university and a matter of public record. At the time, Veazey was doing Sports Enterprise reporting for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Ole Miss divulged 54 of those emails, but held 31 of them back because they were still investigating, according to a report published later by Kyle Veazey.

Now, let’s go back to the article I linked earlier from Beast Man Steve. He points out that Ole Miss had achieved exactly what they wanted because Veazey is no longer in the Sports Department at The Commercial Appeal. He now covers politics for the Memphis based newspaper, so there isn’t anyone following up on it.

I was curious what exactly did happen to those emails and that FOIA request. The cool thing about Twitter is you can just ask anyone anything if they have an account. So I did. Here is what Veazey said in response.

This basically confirmed what Beast Man Steve had suggested, there wasn’t anyone looking into it or following up on it. So, he was right. Ole Miss and their compliance office had done exactly what they had set out to accomplish: bury the emails.

The good thing about the Freedom of Information Act is that anyone can submit requests. You don’t have to be a journalist with a fancy newspaper to submit an FOIA request. So, I went about looking into how it’s done. It’s quite simple really. There isn’t a special form or anything similar you have to use, you just have to put your request in writing. A well thought out and specific email will suffice. And that’s what I did.

I submitted my FOIA request to Ole Miss compliance on June 30. Their department had 3 weeks to respond. I am sure you will all be surprised to learn that Ole Miss waited the entire three weeks to give me their response. And did they give the emails?

Of course not.

The reason I was given for not gaining access to those emails was that they did not fall under the Freedom of Information Act, but instead the Mississippi Public Record Act of 1983. It was an extremely detailed response, and I don’t want to bore people with a lot legal jargon, so I will cut to the chase. They denied on four grounds basically.

1. The NCAA will not let them release items that pertain to an investigation of possible rules violations
2. Those people sent them with the expectation of privacy
3. Some are protected under Mississippi tort laws
4. Others were sent with the protection of disclosure due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

It’s a great sounding argument. My only question was why were the 54 released to Kyle Veazey then? The response said those emails were sent with the intention to harass or entertain, or they lacked clarity. That’s fine, so people who send things to harass and entertain don’t get the same assumption of privacy?

So what happens at this point? This is where me being a blogger and not a journalist for a big time newspaper or news site hurts. If I were, I’d turn it over to my editor who would probably get the legal team to challenge the school’s ruling that they don’t have to turn these emails over. We at MaroonAndWhiteNation.com are a fan driven site, so needless to say we don’t have a legal team to handle that for us. I have no doubt that when the compliance office at Ole Miss received my request, they began researching who I was to see what purpose I might be trying to use this information. A simple Google search of my name shows my Author profile as the first result listed here on FanSided, so I am sure they knew exactly how I intended to use them. I’m sure they were confident I wouldn’t follow any decision they made with legal action, and they’d be right.

Do I think they can deny them? No, but unless they are going to be taken to court, then they can make whatever decisions they choose and not have to worry about whether or not they are abiding by the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983 or the Freedom of Information Act.

Do I think there is anything in those emails that is damaging to the Ole Miss football team? Probably not. They were sent to the compliance department as a way to tell Hugh Freeze that if he was going to run his mouth about recruiting violations, well we will show him. I can’t imagine anyone who had real information and evidence about recruiting violations would hold on to them and then suddenly send them in just to try to show up Hugh Freeze. It’s possible  but unlikely. I have asked for the 54 emails that were sent to Kyle Veazey, and I will be interested to see if they give them to me. If they do and there is anything interesting in there, I will let you know.

One other note. In the response, I was assured that Ole Miss has thoroughly investigated the 31 emails and found there to be no violations. I don’t know about you, but I can sleep better at night knowing that.