Ole Miss Football, Basketball Self-Report Minor Recruiting Violations

Ole Miss Rebels football and men's basketball have recently self-reported four minor recruiting violations to the NCAA.

Remember Ole Miss' troubles with the NCAA about five years ago? Well, this probably won't be nearly as controversial.

According to reports from David Eckert of The Clarion Ledger, Rebels football and men's basketball self-reported four minor recruiting violations to the NCAA that occurred between May 1, 2023 and Jan. 16, 2024, one of which involves balloons.

Yes, balloons.

Oct 21, 2023; Auburn, Alabama, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin talks to a game official during the second quarter against the Auburn Tigers at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports / © John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

The report indicates that basketball managers decorated a recruit's hotel room in September with Ole Miss-themed balloons, which apparently violates an NCAA regulation. Basketball also self-reported another September violation where they provided four recruits with binders and sheet protectors that contained photos from their official visits.

Compliance staffers then informed the basketball coaches that photos of the visit could not be bound in this format.

After both "incidents," basketball staffers were given rules education on acceptable recruiting practices, and the Rebels' permitted recruiting contacts with each of the involved athletes was reduced by one.

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Shifting gears to football, a first-year junior college prospect who was not an NCAA qualifier took an unofficial visit to Ole Miss in September and made contact with the Rebels' coaching staff. The Ole Miss coach did not confirm with the compliance office that the prospect was an NCAA qualifier, which is a term for a prospective athlete who has met the requirements to be eligible to participate in sports at the Division I level.

Ole Miss then prohibited contact with this recruit for 30 days, barred the coach in question from off-campus recruiting for 30 days and reduced its evaluation days for the 2023-24 academic year by two.

The final violation occurred in October when a recruit was visible in the background of a weekly show produced by Ole Miss' production team. The group told compliance that it would blur out the recruit, but the video was seen on social media for 48 hours before being removed and edited.

This final violation brought about rules education for the productions team and football staff.

It appears that even in the changing landscape of college athletics, the NCAA still holds some rules and regulations that don't make a ton of sense, and those waters are still being navigated by Ole Miss and programs across the country.