Ole Miss faces NCAA

Mississippi’s football program began its hearing in front of the NCAA’s infractions committee panel on Monday at a hotel in Covington, Ky., a suburb of Cincinnati, nearly five years after the governing body first launched its investigation. The NCAA has set aside up to three days for the case. The Rebels are facing 21 allegations, including 15 that are classified as Level I, which the NCAA deems the most serious. The school has already self-imposed several penalties, including a postseason ban for this season, 3 years of probation, scholarship losses and recruiting restrictions. The NCAA could accept the Rebels’ self-imposed penalties or add to them when it reaches a decision, which could be several weeks to months after the hearing ends. All 21 of the alleged football violations happened under the program’s two previous coaches — Hugh Freeze and Houston Nutt. Freeze — who coached five seasons at Ole Miss from 2012 to 2016 — resigned in July, but the school says his resignation wasn’t related to the NCAA case. Instead, the school cited a “pattern of personal misconduct” after an investigation into Freeze’s phone records. The school has received two notice of allegations letters from the NCAA over the past two years. The first alleged 13 rules violations, including nine that were classified as Level I. The case expanded in April 2016 after former offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil became the focal point of the NFL draft after a bizarre video of him smoking from a gas mask-bong contraption was posted on his Twitter account just before the selections began. There was also a post on Tunsil’s Instagram account showing an alleged text conversation with a football staff member about arranging payment for bills. Though the NCAA didn’t appear to find much from that particular exchange, it did reopen its investigation, resulting in a second notice of allegations earlier this year that expanded the case to its current 21 charges.