Bjork: NCAA has wrong read on Ole Miss culture

OXFORD – The NCAA’s message to Ole Miss on Dec. 1 was very clear: “You have a booster problem. Fix it.”

As the school’s NCAA case continues into the new year and the appeal phase vice chancellor for athletics Ross Bjork says the school is working to monitor all boosters but disagrees with the NCAA’s assessment.

The involvement in recruiting and daily operations of those who desire to be athletics “insiders” is actually less than he’s seen in previous career stops at other Power Five conference programs – Missouri, UCLA and Miami, Florida.

“I’ve been around some big-time programs. I would define our culture in terms of booster influence or donors trying to influence our program as less here than I’ve seen it at the other big places I’ve been at,” said Bjork, who will soon be in his seventh year as the head of Ole Miss athletics.

Among items included in the appeal are the second-year bowl ban, the lack of institutional control finding and restrictions on unofficial visits by football recruits.

The NCAA said in its report that Ole Miss “fostered an unconstrained booster culture.” The report said Ole Miss “lacked control over its boosters and oversight of football recruiting activities.”

Bjork and Ole Miss chancellor Jeff Vitter say the NCAA’s opinion fails to consider the school’s overall compliance history for the last 25 years.

“Frankly, that is one of the strongest parts of our appeal,” Vitter said.

The NCAA highlighted statements made by Vitter and former coach Hugh Freeze in their appearances before the committee on infractions.

According to the report, Vitter told the group he found one instance of the school’s interaction with boosters to be “disturbingly questionable.”

Freeze – who has been employed by only one Power Five conference school, Ole Miss – is quoted as saying he was surprised by the “craziness” of boosters trying to insert themselves in his program.

Bjork contradicts that statement.

Comparing his previous experiences he said, “I don’t believe we have that many people trying to insert themselves into our daily business or daily recruiting.”

The administration says there are 130,000 living Ole Miss alumni.

From that number it considers about 35,000 to be “active customers” of athletics – people who routinely buy season tickets, or multiple single-game tickets or contribute to athletics in other ways.

The school took action against 12 boosters, severing relationships which meant those people could no longer contribute, buy tickets through the university, attend special functions or in any way participate in Ole Miss athletics.

Bjork contends that 12 out of 35,000 does not constitute an unconstrained booster culture.

“And some of those people we had never met. If you run the numbers that’s less than one-hundredth of one percent in terms of the total environment.”

Many donors are upset at being painted with a broad brush by the NCAA which in its comments went back to the 1980s in working to strengthen its case against Ole Miss.

The NCAA case hasn’t yet had a negative impact on giving to athletics. In fact, Bjork said December giving – which included a million-dollar contribution – was “way up” compared to December of 2016.

Some of that had to do with changing tax laws, he noted, but there may be a “circle the wagons” mentality among those who give to Ole Miss athletics.

“We had a family who said, ‘You know what? Now’s the time to give. Now’s the time to step up. It’s sort of galvanized our people to want to help even more and to be part of the solution moving forward, a kind of ‘We don’t want this to happen again. We’re going to make sure we have people around the program that do it the right way.’ That’s what boosters and donors are telling us,” Bjork said.

SOURCE: Parrish Alford. "Bjork: NCAA has wrong read on Ole Miss culture."  Daily Journal, 11 January 2018, http://www.djournal.com/sports/bjork-ncaa-has-wrong-read-on-ole-miss-culture/article_9d7f9a92-c83d-501b-9e03-8e952c85b912.html#tncms-source=article-nav-next.