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How bad will Ole Miss be punished for their cheating?

By Josh Barnhill

Jan 1, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; Mississippi Rebels wide receiver Laquon Treadwell (1) and head coach Hugh Freeze prepares to take the field to play the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the 2016 Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 1, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; Mississippi Rebels wide receiver Laquon Treadwell (1) and head coach Hugh Freeze prepares to take the field to play the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the 2016 Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports /
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At this point, it’s pretty obvious Ole Miss is/was cheating. So how bad will the NCAA punish them?

That’s the sixty four thousand dollar question. Or could it be more than that?

Let’s take a very brief overview of the situation….

1. Ole Miss goes 2-10 in 2011, fires Houston Nutt.

3. OM goes 7-6 in the 2012 season, then signs the #4 class in 2013.

Freeze got five stars from Florida (Laremy Tunsil), Georgia (Robert Nkemdiche) and Illinois (Laquon Treadwell). There were plenty of rumors of cheating, as this sudden rise for Ole Miss seemed a bit fishy. Especially witch Treadwell flashing his cash everywhere during recruiting visits.

Fast forward three years and Ole Miss is sent a notice of allegations, formally charging them with rules violations. 13 of the 28 had to do with football.

Last week, OM received a 30 day extension to respond to the charges.

This week, however, Laremy Tunsil dropped a bomb on the Rebel program. After being picked by the Miami Dolphins, screen shots of texts where Tunsil was asking a Ole Miss coach for money emerged. He was asked about that in his press conference, to which he replied, “I’d have to say yeah”.

Just prior to Ole Miss’ big time win in the Sugar Bowl on January 1st, Robert Nkemdiche made the news when he jumped out of a 4th story hotel room in Atlanta. Reports were that he was using some type of drug at the time.

Drugs, money, covered up assault charges.

There have been rumors upon rumors floating around for over three years now. There’s a lot of smoke (literally) around these three high-profile players that came in from out-of-state to play at Ole Miss. All three went in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft, but the wake they leave behind may be felt in Oxford for a while.

The NCAA has botched many an investigation before. But this one seems to have too much going on to not elicit some type of severe punishment. Steve Robertson of Genespage.com has been on the story for a while now, and he has been saying it won’t be pretty in Oxford.  We shall see how it unfolds.

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