(07-24-2017 12:46 PM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 11:21 AM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 07:54 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 07:42 AM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 07:00 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  They could have acknowledged all the NCAA charges and fired him for cause at any time and avoided the buyout. Plus, $12m is folding money to OM. They were hell bent on keeping him, defending him strongly until the escort info came out. Bjork is crashing along from crisis to crisis.

Acknowledging all the NCAA charges is suicidal to the program and $12 million for a buyout isn't pocket change for any institution.

When they negotiated the buyout, OM agreed to the amount. Do you really think they'd agree to an amount they couldn't afford and not be able continue on with normal business?

Do you really think HF's agent would agree to a buyout that UM wouldn't blink at?

If you think that $12M is a material amount to Ole Miss, you're sadly misinformed. Their endowment is over $600M.

(07-24-2017 03:18 PM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 07:00 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-23-2017 11:24 PM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(07-22-2017 07:46 AM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(07-22-2017 01:29 AM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  You really think Freeze is so dumb as to call the escort service for the players?

His being dumb enough to make the call from the university-owned cell phone issued to him personally makes the exact limits of his dumb-a**edness hard to assess.

While you have a point there, I can guarantee you that a head coach is not calling escort services for players.

Freeze was in Tampa and the call in question was to a Florida service.

What I'm betting happened is that Freeze was doing this when he was out of town. He knew he could redact the calls if he were to be FOIA'd, so he called from his university phone. He removed the other calls on the list he turned over to Nutt's lawyers but missed this one. Once news broke about that one call a week ago, Ole Miss knew this may be an opportunity to fire Freeze without the $12m buyout and looked into the full records and found several calls.

Also, if there was NOT a "pattern of behavior" that could be proven, I seriously doubt Bjork would have said so--or that Freeze admitted to it. Freeze probably would have sued for slander within hours, and the last thing Ole Miss wants is another disgruntled ex-coach suing.

Really, it is a hell of a break for Ole Miss and pretty well-played by Bjork. The buyout was probably the main reason they kept him on board. There was good chance they were going to have to fire him anyway--depending on the NCAA's findings. Here, they get a chance to do it before the NCAA hands out punishment and without having to pay him a dime. I don't buy that this will lessen the NCAA's punishment but Ole Miss has probably convinced themselves that this might help a tiny bit. It certainly doesn't hurt and regardless of the NCAA punishments, they move away from Freeze.

They could have acknowledged all the NCAA charges and fired him for cause at any time and avoided the buyout. Plus, $12m is folding money to OM. They were hell bent on keeping him, defending him strongly until the escort info came out. Bjork is crashing along from crisis to crisis.

Why would they acknowledge the NCAA charges?

And it was actually closer to $16-20m from what I'm hearing. And yes....it is a hell of a lot of money for Ole Miss.

$600m is their university-wide endowment to fund scholarships, operating costs, and to run major research programs, a law school, medical school, and other health programs. Usually, athletics has a separate endowment. And $600m is not that much given all of their programs. Most of the money goes to their medical school.

Hell, South Alabama's endowment is near $500m and they don't have a law school, nowhere near the research programs, and probably have fewer health programs than Ole Miss.

(07-23-2017 06:45 PM)eaglebeaver Wrote:  no longer there......... my play time on here has been severely reduced!

(07-24-2017 05:06 PM)Nuggets Ghostbuster Wrote:  

(07-23-2017 06:45 PM)eaglebeaver Wrote:  no longer there......... my play time on here has been severely reduced!

The new resort is lucky to have you.......

(07-24-2017 03:37 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 12:46 PM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 11:21 AM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 07:54 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 07:42 AM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  Acknowledging all the NCAA charges is suicidal to the program and $12 million for a buyout isn't pocket change for any institution.

When they negotiated the buyout, OM agreed to the amount. Do you really think they'd agree to an amount they couldn't afford and not be able continue on with normal business?

Do you really think HF's agent would agree to a buyout that UM wouldn't blink at?

If you think that $12M is a material amount to Ole Miss, you're sadly misinformed. Their endowment is over $600M.

So you think UM can just pluck $ 12 mill from their endowments any time they want, to pay for a buyout for the ole football coach? Ok, bud.

(07-25-2017 09:26 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 03:37 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 12:46 PM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 11:21 AM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 07:54 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  When they negotiated the buyout, OM agreed to the amount. Do you really think they'd agree to an amount they couldn't afford and not be able continue on with normal business?

Do you really think HF's agent would agree to a buyout that UM wouldn't blink at?

If you think that $12M is a material amount to Ole Miss, you're sadly misinformed. Their endowment is over $600M.

So you think UM can just pluck $ 12 mill from their endowments any time they want, to pay for a buyout for the ole football coach? Ok, bud.

No they would do it with a few phone calls. Bud.

(07-25-2017 11:11 AM)stinkfist Wrote:  

(07-25-2017 09:26 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 03:37 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 12:46 PM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 11:21 AM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  Do you really think HF's agent would agree to a buyout that UM wouldn't blink at?

If you think that $12M is a material amount to Ole Miss, you're sadly misinformed. Their endowment is over $600M.

So you think UM can just pluck $ 12 mill from their endowments any time they want, to pay for a buyout for the ole football coach? Ok, bud.

No they would do it with a few phone calls. Bud.

this we agree upon.....if UAB can......well......it's pretty simple to figure out....

(07-25-2017 11:25 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-25-2017 11:11 AM)stinkfist Wrote:  

(07-25-2017 09:26 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 03:37 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 12:46 PM)RockTheRock Wrote:  If you think that $12M is a material amount to Ole Miss, you're sadly misinformed. Their endowment is over $600M.

So you think UM can just pluck $ 12 mill from their endowments any time they want, to pay for a buyout for the ole football coach? Ok, bud.

No they would do it with a few phone calls. Bud.

this we agree upon.....if UAB can......well......it's pretty simple to figure out....

OM would name a room in a building for the amount we named the building itself for Scianna. They have lawyer and doctor money on one hand, but they have old family money on the other.

(07-24-2017 04:03 PM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 03:18 PM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 07:00 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-23-2017 11:24 PM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(07-22-2017 07:46 AM)HarborPointe Wrote:  His being dumb enough to make the call from the university-owned cell phone issued to him personally makes the exact limits of his dumb-a**edness hard to assess.

While you have a point there, I can guarantee you that a head coach is not calling escort services for players.

Freeze was in Tampa and the call in question was to a Florida service.

What I'm betting happened is that Freeze was doing this when he was out of town. He knew he could redact the calls if he were to be FOIA'd, so he called from his university phone. He removed the other calls on the list he turned over to Nutt's lawyers but missed this one. Once news broke about that one call a week ago, Ole Miss knew this may be an opportunity to fire Freeze without the $12m buyout and looked into the full records and found several calls.

Also, if there was NOT a "pattern of behavior" that could be proven, I seriously doubt Bjork would have said so--or that Freeze admitted to it. Freeze probably would have sued for slander within hours, and the last thing Ole Miss wants is another disgruntled ex-coach suing.

Really, it is a hell of a break for Ole Miss and pretty well-played by Bjork. The buyout was probably the main reason they kept him on board. There was good chance they were going to have to fire him anyway--depending on the NCAA's findings. Here, they get a chance to do it before the NCAA hands out punishment and without having to pay him a dime. I don't buy that this will lessen the NCAA's punishment but Ole Miss has probably convinced themselves that this might help a tiny bit. It certainly doesn't hurt and regardless of the NCAA punishments, they move away from Freeze.

They could have acknowledged all the NCAA charges and fired him for cause at any time and avoided the buyout. Plus, $12m is folding money to OM. They were hell bent on keeping him, defending him strongly until the escort info came out. Bjork is crashing along from crisis to crisis.

Why would they acknowledge the NCAA charges?

And it was actually closer to $16-20m from what I'm hearing. And yes....it is a hell of a lot of money for Ole Miss.

$600m is their university-wide endowment to fund scholarships, operating costs, and to run major research programs, a law school, medical school, and other health programs. Usually, athletics has a separate endowment. And $600m is not that much given all of their programs. Most of the money goes to their medical school.

Hell, South Alabama's endowment is near $500m and they don't have a law school, nowhere near the research programs, and probably have fewer health programs than Ole Miss.

Why wouldn't they acknowledge something they're going to be nearly certainly found guilty of anyway? Two reasons to do so- leniency from the NCAA and to be able to fire Freeze for cause, voiding his buyout. Bjork, who you seem to think played this well, has spent over a year defending Freeze to the nth degree and trying to tie sanctions back to Houston Dale Nutt, so what happened with the phone call was serendipitous at best for him.

If Bjork had wanted to avoid the buyout and get the NCAA out of Oxford ASAP, he should have capitulated to charges months ago- much like a plea deal- and fired Freeze for cause. That would have been some sort of effective handling of the situation. As it is, he just got lucky in one respect with the escort call. On the other hand, Bjork can't just pivot around now and say "it's all Hugh's fault" and dump the mess in his lap. Not after months and months of building a defense for, and standing solidly behind, Freeze. So Bjork still has NCAA problems- he's completely defended the coach for too long now. The narrative is established and the fight has waged on.

Any school that can pay nearly $5M per year to a coach is not sweating buyout money of $12M. That doesn't mean they want to pay it, though. But they can.

(07-25-2017 11:25 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-25-2017 11:11 AM)stinkfist Wrote:  

(07-25-2017 09:26 AM)RockTheRock Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 03:37 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(07-24-2017 12:46 PM)RockTheRock Wrote:  If you think that $12M is a material amount to Ole Miss, you're sadly misinformed. Their endowment is over $600M.

So you think UM can just pluck $ 12 mill from their endowments any time they want, to pay for a buyout for the ole football coach? Ok, bud.

No they would do it with a few phone calls. Bud.

this we agree upon.....if UAB can......well......it's pretty simple to figure out....

OM would name a room in a building for the amount we named the building itself for Scianna. They have lawyer and doctor money on one hand, but they have old family money on the other.

(07-25-2017 09:45 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  you can babble all you want, but you cant escape how dumb it would be to admit to all the ncaa charges, as you suggested. Also, everyone knows UM has money. tell us something we don't know. but if you think the university and a few alumni would be happy to fork over $12 million, then you must be worth $500 million yourself, or don't have a clue of what you're talking about. You are right about how they were hell bent on keeping him, but they would much rather this resignation than to spend $12 million on buying him out. That $12 million could go to recruits and hookers, right?

(07-25-2017 10:47 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  Bjork was never gonna survive this fiasco. He's dunzo as well.

(07-29-2017 01:59 PM)Nuggets Ghost Wrote:  ...That University may go down as the most corrupt in Collegiate Sports History.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/20186821/houston-nutt-attorney-claims-ole-miss-delaying-release-hugh-freeze-phone-records