‘On Johnny Cochran’s best day, Barney’s not going to walk out of there whole.’

This whole Barney Farrar-Ole Miss thing is starting to read like a mutant Law and Order script.

Houston-based attorney Bruse Loyd told Yahoo Sports on Thursday that he recently filed a brief on Farrar’s behalf as part of Mississippi’s response to the NCAA Notice of Allegations. That institutional response is expected to be filed next week, according to sources, another step in a lengthy investigative process that should culminate in a Committee on Infractions hearing in late summer or early fall.

Loyd said he’s had access to the other response briefs from Ole Miss. After reviewing them, he believes that Farrar is bearing a disproportionate amount of responsibility.

“It was apparent to me that the narrative coming out of Oxford was that Barney was being portrayed as the lone, rogue actor and everyone else was above reproach,” Loyd said, naming head coach Hugh Freeze as one of those considered “above reproach.”

“It’s not right,” Loyd added. “It is a betrayal of him. Do I think Barney’s been made a scapegoat? Yes. Based on what I’ve seen and know, they set him up. ‘You are the most unsophisticated, the most expendable, and, tag, you’re it.’ But I have to say, I’m his advocate in this.

“Barney’s thinking is, ‘We were all in this together – what happened to me?’ They were a team, and a team doesn’t abandon their own on the field of play. It’s also not the Ole Miss way.”

Shit, does every SEC school have a “Way”?

As Farrar’s lawyer, Loyd had a face-to-face meeting with the firm representing Ole Miss that he characterized as agreeable, but the school declined to pay his legal fees. Loyd then made a trip to Indianapolis to meet with NCAA officials in person, where they went over aspects of the case.

After that NCAA trip, Loyd wrote a letter to Ole Miss lawyers making a second request that the school pay Farrar’s legal fees and assist him financially through the briefing and hearing period, which is expected to end in September. That request was denied.

Unless he can effectively challenge the allegations currently against him, it is very unlikely Farrar can escape the panel assessing a show-cause penalty that would severely damage his chances of getting another job in college athletics.

“He’s charged with multiple violations – you tell me what my odds are [of exoneration] unless he can mount a good defense,” Loyd said. “I told the NCAA investigators when we met that, as it is, ‘On Johnny Cochran’s best day, Barney’s not going to walk out of there whole.’ ”

After the disagreement over paying fees and then reviewing the Ole Miss response briefs, Loyd came to a conclusion he shared with Farrar: “They’re going to throw you under the bus.” Loyd believes Farrar was used by the school to cooperate with the investigation, then discarded.

At what point does ol’ Barney turn state’s evidence, so to speak?