Was this about Freeze, or was it more about Ol Miss trying to keep their players after the truth came out after Freeze had to leave and their scholarships were reduced by the NCAA.O Really wrote: ↑Tue Nov 29, 2022 6:24 pmIt was in the Wetzel article. May or may not be totally accurate, but sounds likely.billy.pilgrim wrote: ↑Tue Nov 29, 2022 4:29 pm
Enlighten me, I've never heard of this:
"knowingly and intentionally lying to a kid to keep him trapped"
Is that like sabin grayshirting so many players to keep them from signing with other teams that the sec had to step in with a New Rule?
Back up to January 2016, and Ole Miss was about to get slammed by the NCAA with 15 Level I violations in the program. Freeze knew it would be bad because he was in the middle of it, eventually hit with a “lack of institutional control” charge and given a one-year “show-cause” penalty.
At the time, however, the details were still secret. Freeze was concerned that if the depth of the violations and likely sanctions became public, some of his players might transfer. After all, Ole Miss was about to take on a two-year postseason ban, not to mention a loss of scholarships.
Further, members of the Rebels recruiting class might get nervous and switch their verbal commitments before signing binding letters of intent.
Freeze knew the program couldn’t risk his players, recruits or their families from knowing the truth of what was coming.
So Ole Miss chose to deceive them.
The athletic department orchestrated a massive misinformation campaign by repeatedly supplying the media with off-the-record lies about what was at the heart of the NCAA case.
The school kept telling anyone with a keyboard or a microphone that most of the major violations occurred under former coach Houston Nutt, not Freeze. As such, the story went, the Rebels would be able to avoid significant sanctions.
This was not true, though. The vast majority of the violations came under Freeze, not Nutt. Freeze knew the truth. So did Ole Miss.
Still, the plan went forward. Part of it was in the media, and part of it was Freeze reportedly lying directly to players and recruits and families who asked him about it. He stared right into their eyes and told them the lie.
The goal was obvious: trick everyone who believed in Hugh Freeze, who trusted Hugh Freeze, who gave their blood, sweat and tears to Hugh Freeze until, when the truth came out later via the NCAA infractions report, it was either too late or too difficult for them to transfer.
Remember, this was before the NCAA had its more forgiving transfer portal program.
This was about trapping them.
It’s a brutal and cutthroat thing to do to your own players and their parents, but hey, that’s the choice Hugh Freeze and Ole Miss made.
Trapping players. Look to Sabin as the master, but even past Sabin, I bet most college athletics departments do some versions of it, especially in football.
But still, it's a contractual agreement, often between a kid, or akid and his parents against an experienced adult staff - hardly fair. You're right, the transfer portal will help them walk from bad agreements.
Can they have agents help negotiate - idk, but it would probably be helpful leveling negotiations.
In fairness to Sabin, he has 3 times as many players as he needs looking to play for him. It's to the team's and the university’s advantage for him to encourage half or more that bammer will be their home, some lose spots offered by other teams and end up playing at a lower level.
I don't see a lot of difference in this and what Ol Miss did to their players. I don't see Hugh's involvement in trapping these players intentionally. If he spoke to the players, he was following his employer.
According to my sports journalist son, Wetzel is no fan of the SEC.