Ole Miss imposes one-year postseason ban on football program

The NCAA investigation of the Ole Miss football program has concluded and the school has decided to self-impose a one year postseason ban on the team.

The hammer is getting ready to drop in Oxford. On Wednesday, the University of Mississippi announced that the NCAA had concluded an ongoing investigation of their football program. After last year’s incident at the NFL Draft, which involved Laremy Tunsil having personal conversation about receiving payment from boosters being leaked, it was only a matter of time before the NCAA made their conclusions on their findings.

News has been pouring out from just about everywhere and Neal McCready of Rebel Grove reports that the school is imposing a one-year postseason ban on their football program. That means they won’t be playing in a bowl game or any extra games next year.

He also reported that the NCAA investigators on the case want a two-year ban on the program, which will be interesting to see what happens when the NCAA has their say. For now though, it appears that the school will at least be going one season without the postseason among many other likely changes.

If missing a bowl game and potentially the College Football Playoff was bad enough for the program, Bruce Feldman reported that they will also have to forfeit their SEC postseason money, which is a whopping $7.8 million. That’s a lot of cash the program will be missing out on.

One of the big things that led to the self-imposed ban was the findings from NCAA investigators that boosters paid money to a player that ultimately landed with another program.

In what seems like an unusual way to break the news, the chancellor of the university, Jeff Vitter, the athletic director of Ole Miss, Ross Bjork and head coach Hugh Freeze released a video. In the video, they break down the allegations and the ban that they are putting on the program.

In situations like this, it’s the first shoe to drop. Ultimately more info about what happened is likely to come out about what happened with boosters providing benefits to athletes. It of course could lead to a shakeup with the coaching staff too.

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If this turns out to be worse then it already is, could it potentially mean the end of Freeze as head coach of the program? Ole Miss could likely be facing severe punishments and it should come as no surprise if changes start happening within the program.