MGoGrendel

April 10th, 2018 at 10:59 AM ^

Mars surgically gutted the Ole Miss response Monday night.

“It appears that whoever wrote Ole Miss’s response to Michigan’s waiver request wasn’t aware that Ole Miss publicly apologized to Houston Nutt last October for making misleading statements to the sports media about the NCAA case,” Mars said. “There was no mention of the public apology in Ole Miss’s response. What’s more, the misleading statements to the sports media that Ole Miss publicly apologized for six months ago were the same misleading statements that Shea and a dozen other players and their parents say Ole Miss was telling them at the same time — both in person and over the phone.

MWolverine7

April 10th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^

Love this.....gloves are coming off. Time for Michigan to stop being a door mat for the NCAA and BIG10 office.

EGD

April 10th, 2018 at 11:14 AM ^

I think the critical piece of this article is right here:

"Mars cites the recruiting weekend of Jan. 29-31, 2016 as a pivotal moment in the misrepresentation of Ole Miss troubles with the NCAA. The crux of Patterson’s waiver appeal is what he alleges Ole Miss said and didn’t say between Jan. 21, when Ole Miss received the Notice of Allegations, and Feb. 3, National Signing Day. Patterson, the top-rated quarterback in the 2016 recruiting class, enrolled at Ole Miss on Jan. 25."

WIth the NCAA notice of allegations coming in on Jan. 21 and Patterson enrolling on Jan. 25, that means Ole Miss only needed to mislead Patterson for at most four days before he enrolled.  My concern the whole time has been whether Patterson could reasonably have relied on the false statments he was hearing from Ole Miss people.  But this timeline wouldn't have given him much of an opportunity to check around before he enrolled.  Perhaps he could have delayed his decision another week until NSD, but then he loses the ability to enroll early. And then you have the contermporaneous text messages Patterson was sending other recruits saying "don't worry about the sanctions," which tends to corroborate that he was misled by Ole Miss and that be believed what he was being told.  On the whole I think that is fairly convincing.  Plus it looks like Ole Miss' response is dogshit.

Rasmus

April 10th, 2018 at 1:47 PM ^

Logged in to upvote this. Articulates the heart of the matter.

And to argue that it's the timeline after January 25 that shows a continuing pattern of deception by Ole Miss.

They're arguing that they couldn't have known they would get caught beyond what had already been alleged in the first notice. That's weak, precisely because Freeze's program was dirty. Ole Miss was a dirty program, and they sold it as a clean program. End of argument.

And Shea Patterson isn't just any recruit -- he's an IMG product and because of that support he was squeeky clean.

DrMantisToboggan

April 10th, 2018 at 11:21 AM ^

With large outlets starting to cover this back-and-forth (ESPN story the other day, USA Today story this morning), the NCAA will be faced with a gnarly shit-storm from the media and current and former players if they deny these six kids' eligibility. The NCAA has obviously felt criticism before, and they may feel insulated, who knows, but man, the blowback from saying no to these kids would be bad.

bluebyyou

April 10th, 2018 at 11:19 AM ^

The good thing about having Mars represent Shea is that he is both knowledgeable about what went down previously based on his representation of Nutt, and that he is not afraid of filing a lawsuit.  A suit could come very quickly if Shea gets an adverse decision from the NCAA and it is something that neither the NCAA nor Old Miss will want to defend due to the discovery process that brings heretofore hidden "uglies" to light.

Blue in PA

April 10th, 2018 at 11:21 AM ^

Ole Miss....making their bad name look worse.....   

 

Any chance there's a sparty booster paying them to attract some attention right now?  lol

AFWolverine

April 10th, 2018 at 11:28 AM ^

I don't have much faith in the NCAA, but I am hopeful they see right through this pathetic attempt to block a legitimate request for immediate eligibility. If Shea's lawyer provides everything he's talking about, it will be a no-brainer. The NCAA is good at no-brain things.

reshp1

April 10th, 2018 at 11:46 AM ^

WTF is Ole Miss's end game here? It's not like he's coming back whatever happens. Michigan is in a different conference, not on the schedule. What difference does it make to them?

Section 1.8

April 10th, 2018 at 12:19 PM ^

We still have, front-paged, an MGoThread entitled, "Ole Miss formally oppses Shea's transfer."  That's not true, and not really sensible.

Shea Patterson has transferred.  He's enrolled at Michigan and is a part of the football team.  He will play for Michigan, in 2018 or 2019.  

Normally, as a transfer, his eligibility ought to be for 2019.  His 2018 eligibility, if granted, is technically exceptional under the rules, no matter how badly Michgan fans want it to happen and how unjust they'd view a denial.

It sure seems like a lot of Michigan fans are viewing this in the same light as the transfer letters we so often see with grad transfers and the like.

The question that is actually interesting, and which I have not seen answered, is whether Ole Miss could waive the sit-out requirement for Shane (and others) without Ole Miss having to admit to wrongdoing in any other context with the NCAA?  I remain convinced that it is sort of obvious for Ole Miss to fight, as long as the fight pertains to any Ole Miss guilt (separate and apart from Shea Patterson's eligibility).  Only if Ole Miss could execute a waiver letter, and not have it hurt them, would I expect this to go away easy.  I just don't think the Bylaws allow that, but I haven't seen anybody do a deep dive on that.  (I miss the Bylaw Blog.)

 

sum1valiant

April 10th, 2018 at 12:33 PM ^

Ole Miss has already admitted wrongdoing, particularly spreading factually inaccurate information regarding the sanctions, in the Houston Nutt case. The timeline of what they admitted to parallels the timing of Sheas enrollment.
Whether or not they can avoid admitting to any wrongdoing in the case of these transfers is a moot point, because they've already done so. The lawsuits will be swift if these waivers aren't approved, and will assuredly end the same way the Nutt case did, just with a lot more bad press for both Ole Miss and the NCAA.

mooseman

April 10th, 2018 at 12:33 PM ^

"Certain statements made by University employees in January 2016 appear to have contributed to misleading media reports about Coach Nutt. To the extent any such statements harmed Coach Nutt's reputation, the University apologizes, as this was not the intent," the university said in a statement. "The NCAA's Notice of Allegations dated January 22, 2016, did not name or implicate Coach Nutt in any misconduct, and it would have been inappropriate for any University employee to suggest otherwise."

 

I guess what needs to be shown is that they made similar statements to recruits (Patterson specifically) and suggested that, because it was the old regime, they would have minimal sanctions going forward. 

UofMfanINcolumbus

April 10th, 2018 at 11:56 AM ^

My favorite thing about Spring ball this far is Mars shitting on Ole Miss constantly. Bastards are messing around with abunch of 18 & 19 year olds futures to save a little face. It's pathetic.