SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey reports on the many ways an NCAA investigation into Ole Miss’ football program has caught up Mississippi State linebacker Leo Lewis. Testimony by Lewis is the “sole basis” for five NCAA allegations against Ole Miss, per Godfrey, including four that are classified as the most serious type: Level I.
The NCAA might’ve changed its mind about the credibility of its star Ole Miss witness
Ole Miss claims that the NCAA once decided Leo Lewis wasn’t credible. Now, he’s a key part of its Ole Miss case.
During a meeting with NCAA investigators last December, Lewis testified that boosters for a program offered money during his recruitment, according to a transcript of the meeting.
The identity of the team was redacted, but in an Aug. 16 letter to the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions, Ole Miss’ counsel wrote it has “since come to light that the institution Mr. Lewis identified was Mississippi State University,” the Rebels’ Egg Bowl rival from Starkville.
Ole Miss’ lawyers have alleged that the NCAA closed an investigation into Mississippi State because Lewis’ interviews with enforcement staff weren’t “sufficiently credible.”
From Godfrey:
On August 16, attorneys representing Ole Miss wrote a letter addressed to COI chairman Greg Christopher, AD for Xavier University, which requested access to a separate NCAA investigation into Mississippi State. The letter, which was obtained by SB Nation, alleges that NCAA enforcement confirmed to Ole Miss that they had “quickly opened and subsequently closed” the investigation because Lewis’s statements about receiving money from Mississippi State were deemed to be “ultimately... not sufficiently credible to support an allegation.”
If the NCAA didn’t believe Lewis was credible enough before, what’s changed?
In July, NCAA investigators wrote to the Committee on Infractions, which will decide the Ole Miss case after a Sept. 11-13 hearing, that Lewis was credible.
“Lewis consistently provided credible and reliable information during the investigation,” the investigators said.
If it’s true that the NCAA once decided Lewis’ testimony wasn’t credible enough but that it now is enough to use against Ole Miss, that looks bad — like the NCAA has held back information that might damage Lewis’ credibility as it pursues Ole Miss.
But that wouldn’t be against the rules, because the NCAA’s in charge here. Withholding potential evidence in an NCAA infractions case is not the same as doing it in court.
From Godfrey again:
Ole Miss counsel’s argument to the COI -- the judge and jury of Ole Miss’ fate -- was simple: If Lewis’ testimony was found not credible in the NCAA’s investigation into Mississippi State, he could not be used as a credible witness in its investigation of Ole Miss.
If Ole Miss’ argument is true, the NCAA would’ve withheld what’s called “exculpatory” evidence in a court of law — basically, information that could clear someone of guilt (in this case Ole Miss and some of its disassociated boosters). But the NCAA isn’t a court of law. The two sides don’t have subpoena power, and the enforcement staff is within the guidelines of its bylaws to withhold any information from another investigation into another member institution, even if evidence gathered there could impact a trial or another active investigation.
That won’t be any comfort to Ole Miss. But the NCAA doesn’t have to care.
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