Report: Hugh Freeze minimized NCAA case to Ole Miss players

Several Ole Miss transfers are making a case saying that Hugh Freeze misled them about the NCAA investigation in hopes of receiving transfer waivers that would allow them to play at their new schools immediately.

CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd reported on Thursday about the cases the players are building in hopes of receiving transfer waivers. As part of their cases, the players are gathering electronic communications which they believe will show they were misled by Freeze.

In one message exchange, former Ole Miss quarterback Shea Patterson tells another recruit not to worry about the NCAA’s investigation because it was for things that happened before Freeze arrived at Ole Miss. Patterson’s argument is that he was repeating what he had been told by Freeze.

Ole Miss received a notice of allegations from the NCAA in early 2016, right around the time of National Signing Day. The players seeking transfers from the 2016 recruiting class have a good argument that they were misled because they signed around the time the NCAA dropped its allegations.

Ole Miss received a two-year bowl ban as part of the penalties and is appealing.

The most high-profile transfer of the group is Patterson, who has enrolled at Michigan. He is hoping to hear from the NCAA soon about his transfer waiver request, but Dodd says the process is expected to take until late March or early April. In the meantime, quarterback Wilton Speight has delayed his graduate transfer plans while he awaits the decision on Patterson.