Ole Miss will ‘vigorously appeal’ 2018 bowl ban in COI punishments

Ole Miss’ finally received word of its NCAA violations punishment on Friday morning after four long years of investigation. The Committee on Infractions lists, among other sundry penalties, an additional postseason ban for Rebel football in 2018.

In response, Ole Miss chancellor Jeffrey Vitter announced in a written statement that the university will “vigorously appeal” the NCAA’s “excessive” punishment in the form of a second postseason ban. His statement reads, in part:

In the report, the committee disagreed with the institution’s position on most of the contested allegations. In addition to accepting our previously self-imposed sanctions, the committee has imposed a postseason ban for 2018.

While we continue to review the full report, we will vigorously appeal the 2018 postseason ban. The additional postseason ban is excessive and does take into account the corrective actions that we made in personnel, structure, policies and processes to address the issues.

It remains to be seen how the appeal will turn out, but I’m not optimistic that Ole Miss will see a bowl game next season, given the NCAA’s apparent faith in Leo Lewis, Lindsay Miller and others’ testimony before the COI, and especially given the breadth of show causes for former staff, Hugh Freeze, Chris Kiffin, and Barney Farrar among them.