Ole Miss Football: Grove Grinder, 9/11 And The NCAA COI Hearing
Ole Miss football has been thru the ringer during the off-season with the worst yet to come from a five-year three-ring NCAA investigation. The COI hearings begin today.
So most of the time I try to take Ole Miss football/NCAA things with a grain of salt. Trust me there is a lot which I could grind about in the Grove Grinder. However, I try to keep it as positive as possible. This Grinder will be different. On the day of the COI hearings I’m going to get a few things off my chest.
Somewhere between Indianapolis, Indiana, Birmingham, Alabama and the blue grass state, there is a NCAA minion. His sole purpose was to make Ole Miss football go thru hell. His idea of fun was to schedule the COI on September 11. Yes, on 9/11. We all know the significance of the date and respect it. However, this is more than just that date.
Ole Miss football travels to California this week to take on the Cal Golden Bears. This would not be a good reason to fuss other than the following week Ole Miss has a bye. It would have seemed a no-brainer to have this COI meeting in the Ole Miss football program’s bye-week. Of course, the following week has Ole Miss slated to travel to Tuscaloosa.
For any tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist out there it certainly raises a few red-flags. Why continue to beat down a dead horse? This whole NCAA fiasco has stunk from the very beginning. There was an obvious agenda by the NCAA investigators in the case. There was also an obvious attempt to interfere with the investigation by TSBU officials which also included State College head coach Dan Mullin.
What We Can Expect Today
Ole Miss Rebels Football
The only thing we know for sure is the COI is meeting today and there have been a number of people named within the NOAs and subsequent responses. We knew Miss State line-backer Leo Lewis was required to be there and had been trying to avoid going.
Of course, now we know interim head coach Matt Luke was requested to attend. Although Luke was in no way implicated within the investigation, he is the acting head coach for Ole Miss football and needs to be there. As I’ve stated before, I’m sure the type of person coach Luke is dictates his desire to know what’s going on.
Besides Matt Luke, we also know that coaches Derrick Nix and Maurice Harris will be there. Also required to be there will be the former head coach Hugh Freeze. Of course, as reported earlier by Parish Alford of the Daily Journal, also attending will be Ole Miss officials Ross Bjork, Matt Ball, Julie Owen and Ron Rychlak.
There will be no press releases made by Ole Miss officials as there is a gag order in effect for the duration of the hearings. We’ll see how that works out as there have already been leaks within the investigation to EliteDawgs.com contributor Steve Robertson.
This is going to be a huge distraction for these individuals during a road game week. The NCAA COI will meet at least three days this week which will create a logistical nightmare for Ole Miss football. Frankly this OHT contributor feels it was in extremely poor taste for the NCAA to schedule the COI hearings for this date. Especially with next week as a bye-week. Hotty Toddy!