Hugh Freeze has lost control.

For some reason, Ole Miss decided to release the NCAA’s case summary and the enforcement staff’s written response to its own response to the NCAA’s notice of infractions.

It’s not a good look.

“The facts uncovered during a fair and thorough investigation substantiated numerous violations and revealed a culture of noncompliance infecting the football program, both internally among personnel and externally among boosters,” the enforcement staff’s written response stated…

The enforcement staff doubled down on Lewis’ statements.

“The institution, certain involved individuals and others have speculated that [redacted] fabricated statements implicating the institution to redirect attention away from his current institution,” the enforcement staff’s response read. “These suggestions are baseless and should be disregarded by the hearing panel. The enforcement staff finds [redacted] to be credible and notes his various incentives to provide truthful information in the infractions process. Furthermore, when possible the enforcement staff tested information [redacted] shared and found it to be reliable.”

… The enforcement staff claimed former staffers Chris Kiffin and Barney Farrar arranged for those three to receive the free merchandise.

“The enforcement staff determined the independent, matching reports from [redacted] [redacted] and [redacted] were compelling and corroborative of one another,” the enforcement staff’s response stated, “and show the systematic way in which Kiffin and Farrar arranged the provision of free merchandise.”

… During the hearing, the university will also have to defend Hugh Freeze’s compliance record, but the enforcement staff laid out its case for why he was charged with violating his head coach responsibility legislation.

“Freeze could rebut the presumption by demonstrating that he both promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored his staff,” the enforcement staff’s response stated. “He failed to do both. The atmosphere was anything but compliant and Freeze’s monitoring efforts, as noted above, were many times deficient.”

Er… for example?

NCAA says Freeze suspected Lewis had his hand out but continued recruiting him pic.twitter.com/xgyw3uWs24

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) August 9, 2017

That’s by Freeze’s own admission, mind you.  Yeah, not a good look at all.

The hearing before the Committee on Infractions is scheduled for September 11th and Freeze will be there.  A fun time will be had by all, no doubt.

A very clever tactical retreat, major.

Ole Miss has been dismissed from Houston Nutt’s lawsuit.  But Nutt’s attorney doesn’t seem particularly nonplussed by the development.

Here's Thomas Mars' statement regarding the motion to dismiss. pic.twitter.com/DBBxRd6PeG

— Antonio Morales (@AntonioCMorales) August 9, 2017

LOL.  That’s the sound of a man who’s already claimed one scalp and looks to be back in state court to see what more he can get.

As a side note, how perfect is it that’s there’s a lawyer named Bubba involved in this?

Today, in olive branches

This is what you call being offered a graceful exit.

And an Ole Miss apology to Nutt, of course.

— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) August 7, 2017

It’s a pretty cheap price to avoid any further embarrassing disclosures the discovery process might turn up.  So, why do I have the feeling that the apology is a tougher nut (see what I did there?) to crack than the money?

“I would have to ask, and have asked, are you telling me that with a straight face?”

Houston Nutt’s attorney keeps dialing up the rhetoric.

“There can be no doubt, especially when it comes to athletics, that Ole Miss holds the SEC record for sure for being the most notorious flagrant violator of their state’s open record laws.

“From what I’ve learned in the past two weeks, I dare say they probably hold the same record when compared to every other Division I school in the country.’’

Greg McGarity smiles knowingly.  You can’t easily violate an Open Record law you rewrite for your own benefit, Ole Miss.

In Mars’ defense, the school does appear to be engaged in some fairly deep hairsplitting.

The school said in the letter that Freeze’s phone was provided by the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation and that allowed Freeze to use the phone for personal and business calls. The foundation is a private, non-profit organization that provides “direct and indirect funding … and other support for the University of Mississippi department of intercollegiate athletics,” according to its most recently available federal tax records.

In the letter, university assistant general counsel Robert T. Jolly, wrote that cell phones used by athletics personnel, including Freeze, are provided by the foundation. Jolly wrote that “Mississippi law prohibits personal use of state-issued cell phones and requires elaborate and time-consuming reconciliation of all activities on state cell phones. As a result, very few University employees use state-issued phones. This has been the case for about ten years.”

However, Jolly also wrote that to ensure compliance with NCAA rules, the foundation “provides the University detailed usage information designed to meet our compliance needs.”

Beyond that, Ole Miss contends that, due to the labor-intensive nature of the task, that it will cost more than $20,000 to review all of Freeze’s phone records.  Despite that,

Hugh Freeze is being given the opportunity to review and redact phone records of calls he deemed personal during his five years as the University of Mississippi’s football coach, the university’s general counsel, Lee Tyner, said Thursday.

To be fair, Hugh probably does have a lot of time on his hands these days.

Today, in Oxford, Mississippi

Lafayette Co. Detention Center booking docket confirms Ole Miss' Ken Webster and Detric Bing-Dukes were arrested for shoplifting Tuesday.

— Antonio Morales (@AntonioCMorales) August 2, 2017

If I wanted to be snarky, I’d say this is the kind of thing that happens when the money guys have to leave town suddenly.  If I wanted to be snarky, that is.  Which I don’t.  Totally don’t.

It’s not quite four tickets, four hot dogs and four Cokes…

… mainly because it’s not an official offering from the school, but check out the deal you can get for Ole Miss tickets.

Note the fine print:  “Official Fan Package sets the ticket price and because pricing is subject to the forces of supply and demand, the price may be above or below face value.”

Translation:  it’s a buyer’s market, folks.

(h/t)

“Frankly, you’ve now got us wondering what you’re trying to hide.”

Houston Nutt’s lawyer wants to go through Hugh Freeze’s phone records.

Ole Miss notified Houston Nutt’s lawyer that producing those records would cost a mere twenty-five grand.  (I guess the working theory is if Hugh had to pay for escorts, make the Nuttster pay for the escorts’ numbers.)

Houston Nutt’s lawyer responded and made sure the media knew all about it.

In the correspondence, Jolly claims Mars’ record requests of Freeze’s phone logs from would cost Mars $25,100. The university contended it would need to use outside counsel to go through the calls.

“Considering the scope of your request, the need for redacting exempt information, the fact we are in active litigation with your client, and the number of recent public records requests received by UM, outside counsel will be engaged to assist in handling this request,” Jolly allegedly wrote. “Based on the preceding reasons, please consider this email notification that UM is unable to provide the requested documents within seven working days from the receipt of your 7/18/2017 request.”

Mars was irritated with Ole Miss’ position on his request.

“Since you did not identify a single exemption or legal authority to justify your position, I spent the last two days considering how the list of vague reasons you offered for requiring a full legal review of the phone logs, denying me access to them in the meantime, redacting them, and charging me for an unnecessary and meaningless legal review might possibly be justified under the Public Records Act or by some other Mississippi legal authority,” Mars wrote. “I could find absolutely no legal basis for you to rely on an exemption to delay producing the phone logs, redacting them, or making a ransom demand for the phone logs of between $25,000 and $50,000.”

In his back-and-forth with Ole Miss, Mars also included three legal authorities in order to support his position. He also requested the university present him by Monday afternoon with the statutory exemption it relies on to withhold the phone logs.

“Unless you can provide persuasive authority for your position, or reconsider your position before then, you can count on me taking you to court,” Mars wrote. “If it’s going to take a Mississippi judge to make Ole Miss comply with the Public Records Act, so be it.”

(As an aside, seven working days to produce?  Greg McGarity makes a “pffftt” sound in Ole Miss’ general direction.)

This Mars dude isn’t taking prisoners.  Some advice for Ole Miss here:  like seemingly every athletic department out there, PR isn’t your strong suit, so giving this guy public ammo at every turn probably isn’t going to be a winning strategy.  It’s highly entertaining, though; I’ll give you that.

The NCAA needs to talk to you, son.

Mississippi State linebacker Leo Lewis gets an invitation.

In a letter obtained by SB Nation dated May 17, 2017, Xavier athletic director Greg Christopher, Chief Hearing Officer of the NCAA Division 1 Committee on Infractions, instructs counsel for five former Ole Miss football staffers and one current assistant coach, as well as NCAA Vice President of Enforcement Jon Duncan and Ole Miss Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter:

The panel will request student-athlete Leo Lewis attend the infractions hearing. Mr. Lewis’ grant of immunity related to this case is predicated on his full cooperation in the infractions process. In addition, Bylaw 19.2.3 establishes a responsibility to cooperate. Part of that duty to cooperate is ‘to make full and complete disclosure of any relevant information, including any information requested by the … relevant committees.’ More specifically, Bylaw 19.7.7.5.1 authorizes the panel to request specific individuals to attend the infractions hearing, including enrolled student athletes.

Mr. Lewis’s participation at the hearing is consistent with the expectation of cooperation on which his grant of immunity was predicated. … Mr. Lewis will receive an appearance letter.

The letter also states that the panel can ask questions of Lewis at the hearing “that it believes necessary to decide this case.”

While I’m sure every Ole Miss fan with a grudge has visions of Jack McCoy breaking a witness on the stand, it’s not going to be that kind of show.  To begin with,“… lawyers involved in the case expect that Lewis will field questions only from members of the committee and not from lawyers representing Ole Miss coaches or the University of Mississippi.” 

You’re no fun, NCAA.

Also, there’s this whole limited immunity thing Lewis is operating under.

Lewis was granted limited immunity by the NCAA in exchange for his testimony. SB Nation has confirmed that Lewis spoke to the NCAA under immunity on three occasions between August and December of 2016.

Limited immunity protects an individual (“prospective student-athlete, current or former student-athlete or current or former institutional employee”) from certain consequences for violating NCAA legislation. Limited immunity is an investigative tool that allows information to be elicited from an individual concerning his or her potential involvement in or knowledge of NCAA violations, with the understanding that the NCAA will not put the individual at-risk in the infractions process by bringing identified allegations against him or her.

Basically, with limited immunity, Lewis can speak freely to the NCAA without his statements impacting his eligibility at MSU.

That essentially means the committee will be going over the same ground that’s already been plowed with Lewis in his three prior interviews.  (And, remember, Ole Miss’ lawyers weren’t allowed to grill Lewis in any of those; in fact, they weren’t even permitted to attend the third one.)

However, it has to be said that the Rebel Rags suit complicates things for Leo Lewis.

Lewis’ inclusion at the COI is potentially massive. Multiple legal teams involved in representing individuals named in the NCAA’s investigation, as well as the Rebel Rags civil suit, have cited inconsistencies and contradictions in Lewis’ comments to the NCAA.

If Lewis doesn’t show, the NCAA revokes his immunity, which is not an outcome you’d think he’d welcome, so it’s reasonable to expect him to appear.  It’s also reasonable to expect that he’ll be well prepped by his lawyer.  He’d better be, because you know there will be other lawyers parsing every syllable he utters at the hearing.

If you’re a Georgia fan, as someone pointed out the comments yesterday, the timing for this is fortuitous.

The date for the COI hearing for Ole Miss has not yet been determined, but multiple sources have confirmed to SB Nation that a date in mid-September or mid-October is likely. In addition, the hearing likely won’t occur at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, but instead at an undisclosed location closer to the University of Mississippi’s campus in Oxford.

Georgia hosts Mississippi State on September 23rd.  Think that could be more a little distracting as Dan Mullen gets his team ready to come to Athens?

You realize this means war.

Sure, why not.

Attorneys representing Ole Miss and its former coaches and administrators who have been accused of violating NCAA rules have asked that two Mississippi State football players be required to attend the Rebels’ infractions hearing later this summer, multiple sources familiar with the case told ESPN.

NCAA officials have told lawyers representing Ole Miss that Bulldogs players Leo Lewis and Kobe Jones might be asked to appear at the infractions hearing to answer questions from committee members. It’s unclear whether the players have received a notice to appear at the hearing, which will probably take place sometime in late August or early September.

The NCAA previously denied Ole Miss lawyers’ requests to interview Jones and Lewis about allegations they made during the NCAA’s investigation of the Rebels. In fact, Lewis’ attorneys stopped the second of three interviews with NCAA investigators after Ole Miss’ lawyers attempted to cross-examine him. Ole Miss wasn’t allowed to have an attorney at his third interview.

Jones and Lewis were provided partial immunity by NCAA investigators before they were interviewed.

The details of what are involved with the NCAA’s partial immunity are murky, so it’s unclear what questions Lewis and Jones would be allowed to answer.  Even trickier is how those answers might affect the Rebel Rags suit against them.

I’m beginning to think that when this is all said and done, you’d be crazy to allow yourself to be recruited by both Ole Miss and Mississippi State.  Unless it was purely for entertainment value, that is.

In case you thought it was over…

… not even close.

Latest from Nutt atty Thomas Mars, god of legal war: He wants OM AD Ross Bjork's phone records. Monday story on Mars https://t.co/XQhr2lQd9Z

— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) July 25, 2017

What a week it's been already. ESPN, SI, Yahoo and it looks like the FBI is next.

— Steve Robertson (@ScoutSteveR) July 25, 2017

And all it would have taken to avoid the shitstorm was an apology.

Meanwhile, somewhere an NCAA investigator is sitting back, kicking off his shoes, pouring a cold one and waiting.

*************************************************************************

UPDATE:  Moar.

NEWS: Tom Mars now pursuing records related to a burner phone in Yuma, AZ that appears multiple times in Hugh Freeze's records, he tells me

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) July 26, 2017