Bjork: NCAA says investigation into Ole Miss is over

OXFORD - The NCAA has told Ole Miss its three-plus year investigation into the school's athletic program is complete, Ole Miss' athletic director said Wednesday.

Ross Bjork also said that the school has not received (and doesn't expect to receive) a rumored "second letter" concerning more NCAA violations, has not been charged with lack of institutional control and that football coach Hugh Freeze was not named by the NCAA in any wrongdoing.

"I'm confident in our process," Bjork told The Clarion-Ledger in an exclusive 40-minute interview. "I'm confident in our defense, and I'm confident in our positions.

"That’s why we have this 90-day period: to flesh out all the facts, to flesh out what’s on our side of the defense, what’s on the other side."

The university received a formal notice of allegations on Jan. 22 that accuses Ole Miss of breaking rules in its football, women's basketball and track and field programs.The Clarion-Ledger formally requested the document as a public record under the Freedom of Information Act. Ole Miss has argued against releasing the document at this time, citing the need to respect the privacy of certain individuals named in the notice of allegations and to give them time to respond.

Again citing that process, Bjork declined to answer specific questions from The Clarion-Ledger which included:

• A specific number breakdown of allegations per sport. The Associated Press reported Monday 13 of the 28 relate to football, with nine occurring since Freeze took over the program in December 2011. The Clarion-Ledger reported five of the nine concern former player Laremy Tunsil and are already known. ESPN.com reported that four dating back prior to 2011 involve former staffer David Saunders.
• What self-imposed penalties Ole Miss has already taken in its football and track and field programs. Bjork did refer to the school’s 2012 announcement of significant penalties to women’s basketball, including a postseason ban.
• How many of the 28 allegations are Level I, II and III. Under the NCAA governance structure, Level I violations are the most serious and can carry significant penalties including but not limited to loss of scholarships, probation and bowl/postseason bans.
• Whether or not Ole Miss has been charged with failure to monitor, which is the Level II version of a Level I lack of institutional control.

The most serious known allegations involve academic fraud in women’s basketball — a head coach and two staffers were fired before ever coaching a game over alleged academic and recruiting misconduct — and football — Saunders, a former Ole Miss employee, was given an eight-year show-cause by the NCAA over arranging fraudulent exam scores for recruits at Louisiana-Lafayette. The latter argued it was a pattern of behavior that began at Ole Miss, and Ole Miss’ counsel was present for the NCAA’s 2013 interview of Saunders.

Ole Miss has 90 days to submit its rebuttal to the NCAA, which then has 60 days to develop a case summary. If the facts of the case aren’t agreed upon, the case goes before the committee on infractions. A hearing before the committee is then set, meaning the university would be unlikely to have the matter resolved before September — nearly four years to the date that the women’s basketball issues were uncovered and the NCAA issued a verbal notice of inquiry.

“I believe I can say this without compromising anything, we were pretty much done until the Laremy Tunsil stuff bubbled up last summer,” Bjork said.

Tunsil received a seven-game suspension last fall for accepting impermissible benefits.

Bjork said it is too early to characterize the tone of their response. “There’s facts that are in there that still need to be developed in some situations and some situations the facts are pretty clear,” he said.

Bjork did say, however, the university was previously aware of everything in the letter and self-reported several items, including the track and field allegations, which Bjork said are related to recruiting. How the NCAA enforcement process works is that Ole Miss’ counsel works alongside the NCAA investigator, Bjork said — another reason why he believes that a second letter is not coming, since Ole Miss has not been notified and “the same thing would be expected.”

Through it all, Bjork has remained steadfast in his defense of the athletic program he inherited only months before this all began in 2012. Bjork said Ole Miss has increased its compliance staff, started a vehicle monitoring program that traces the paperwork of athletes’ cars and developed a “high-profile student-athlete program” to meet with those players on a regular basis.

“We pride ourselves, I think, on having a great staff, a great community, doing things right, doing the right thing,” Bjork said. “Integrity is one of our core values. And so when that comes into question, it’s easy to be defensive about that, but we’ve really taken the approach that we believe in who we are. We’re not afraid of that. We’re really fearless in our approach and building the program.”

Ole Miss plans to release the notice of allegations and its response in the future, something Bjork said he’s looking forward to doing in an effort to present Ole Miss’ case publicly.

“We can’t wait to reveal all this,” Bjork said. “We’re ready to tell that story. We’re looking forward to the day to when we can tell this story and put it out there and be transparent beyond what we’ve already done... We’re welcoming that day to tell our story. We just can’t do it right now.”