Ole Miss receives two-year bowl ban

Mississippi’s football program won’t participate in the postseason this year or in 2018 as part of the NCAA’s sanctions levied against the school in the long-running rules violation case that included a charge of lack of institutional control.

In the latest development in the more than five-year ongoing case, the Committee on Infractions Friday came down fairly hard on Ole Miss. Most notably, the NCAA decided the oneyear self-imposed postseason ban was not enough for the Rebels, who finished the regular season with a 6-6 record.

Ole Miss had hoped to avoid a postseason ban in 2018, but was hit with another year and plans to appeal the decision.

“We wish that this were over,” Ole Miss athletics director Ross Bjork said. “But there is more work to be done and that work has already started.”

The Committee on Infractions said the case was similar to other Ole Miss rules violations cases in 1986 and 1994 and that the school had an “unconstrained booster culture.” The NCAA says six football staff members and 12 boosters contributed to the current violations.

“This is now the third case over three decades that has involved the boosters and football program,” the panel said in its decision.

“Even the head coach acknowledged that upon coming to Mississippi, he was surprised by the ‘craziness’ of boosters trying to insert themselves into his program.”