Auburn to hire Freeze to be its football coach

Auburn is hiring Liberty coach Hugh Freeze to take over the football program, more than five years after his resignation from SEC Western Division rival Mississippi amid both personal and NCAA scandals.

A person with knowledge of the talks told the Associated Press on Monday that Freeze has signed a memorandum of understanding with the school. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because contract details were being worked out.

Sports Illustrated was first to report that Auburn was finalizing a deal with Freeze.

Freeze is 68-44 in 11 seasons as a head coach.

• Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders said that a report saying Colorado has offered him its head coaching job is true and he has interest elsewhere too.

• UNLV fired head coach Marcus Arroyo, who went 7-23 over three seasons.

• The Big Ten fined Michigan State $100,000 and reprimanded Michigan for a lack of adequate security over a stadium tunnel altercation in Ann Arbor that led to seven Spartans being charged with crimes. Spartans cornerback Khary Crump, who is facing a felony charge, is also suspended for the first eight games of next season.

• Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara entered the transfer portal.

• Middle Tennessee will play San Diego State in the Hawaii Bowl on Dec. 24 on the Hawaii campus after the bowl game was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.