A couple of posts at Red Cup Rebellion caught my eye this morning.
This one charts the hit Freeze took with this year’s recruiting class, while this one sounds a bit wistful about Ole Miss’ predicament.
Yea, the NCAA situation hurt Ole Miss this recruiting cycle. A couple of hours after piecing together the country’s No. 30 overall class on National Signing Day, Hugh Freeze himself referred to 2017 as “a penalty” and griped about other schools using the ongoing investigation for negative recruiting.
It was a decent class considering the limitations, but the reality is that the Rebels can’t have another like it and continue to compete with the top of the SEC (this year’s class ranked 12th in the conference). Ole Miss needs a bounce-back cycle in 2018.
Whether or not the NCAA will break camp by next Signing Day is anyone’s guess, though it’s hard to believe they can drag this thing out for another full year.
It’s the NCAA, sunshine. I wouldn’t be too sure about anything, when it comes to the NCAA.
And that’s the thing. We all know in an age of enormous conference television contracts, no program is ever going to get slammed with the death penalty again. But slow playing an investigation so that a program’s recruiting suffers over a period of a few years while the sword of Damocles dangles overhead? Yeah, I can see that. If you think about it, that’s a pretty effective penalty in its own way.
The only thing I’m not sure of is if the NCAA is actually that clever. If it is, though, that’s something an overly aggressive head coach might have to factor into his approach on the recruiting trail. Assuming there’s a next time, of course.