Ole Miss hit with additional bowl-ban year

The NCAA hit the Ole Miss football team with more punishment on Friday, including an additional year from playing in the postseason.

Ole Miss will be banned from playing in a bowl again next season and the Rebels also received additional scholarship deductions in the ruling the university received from the NCAA committee on infractions Friday, sources told ESPN. The university already self-imposed a bowl ban for this season when it received a notice of allegations in February.

Because of the two-year bowl ban, NCAA rules state Ole Miss players could become free to transfer elsewhere without sitting out a season.

The Rebels were accused of 15 Level I violations, including lack of institutional control, under former coach Hugh Freeze. The school appeared in front of the NCAA committee on infractions in Covington, Ky., on Sept. 11-12.

Freeze, who resigned for off-field issues in July, received a one-year show-cause penalty and a two-game suspension from the NCAA for failure to monitor his staff. The resignation came after the university found records of phone calls from Freeze to an escort service on his school-issued cell phone.

Former Rebels assistant coaches David Saunders, Chris Vaughn, Chris Kiffin and staff member Barney Farrar were among those disciplined by the NCAA, according to ESPN.

Ole Miss also was penalized by the NCAA with an additional loss of 13 football scholarships. As part of self-imposed sanctions, the university already cut 11 scholarships over a four-year period from 2015 to 2018.

Ole Miss also agreed to forfeit its share of SEC postseason revenues for next season, which could be as much as $7.8 million, ESPN reported.

Mississippi State linebacker Leo Lewis told NCAA investigators that he received between $13,000 and $15,600 from an Ole Miss booster while the Rebels were recruiting him. The university disputed charges that Lewis and Mississippi State defensive end Kobe Jones received free merchandise from Rebel Rags, a sporting goods store in Oxford, Miss.

Matt Luke guided the Rebels to a 6-6 record this season after taking over for Freeze. Luke had the interim tag removed on Sunday when he was officially named head coach.