SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a memorandum to member schools in 2018 laying out in detail the process required to hire Hugh Freeze, according to a document obtained this week by AL.com.
Sankey then followed up with another memorandum in 2020, also obtained by AL.com, that doesn’t name Freeze but details the process to hire a coach with previous NCAA violations like the former Ole Miss coach experienced at his previous job.
Freeze, Auburn’s new head football coach, had been considered by various SEC schools for jobs since his exit in 2017 prompting the league office to inform its member schools of the steps necessary to hire Freeze. The first memo, sent in Nov. 2018, was entitled, “Re: Possible Employment of Former Ole Miss Head Football Coach Hugh Freeze.”
Freeze resigned from Ole Miss after he used a university-issued cell phone to call an escort service. He also was the target of two NCAA Notices of Allegations including Level 1 and Level 2 violations during his time in Oxford.
Auburn must comply with the SEC directives, as they pertain to Freeze, as it moves forward with its new football coach.
The steps, however, are not nearly as drastic as initially outlined in the 2018 memo when multiple member institutions sought the service of Freeze shortly after he resigned from Ole Miss amid both personal and NCAA scandals.
“In Nov. ‘20, I sent a memo to our campuses that establishes what would be in place,” Sankey explained to AL.com on Thursday afternoon. ... “We’ve done this with assistant coaches that have been hired with past Level 1 or Level 2 violations. We’ve done it with head coaches.”
In the 2020 memo, which does not specifically mention Freeze, there is a 3-step process:
(1) The institution’s president or chancellor is expected to contact the commissioner directly to discuss the candidate prior to offering employment. Auburn, per an SEC spokesman, satisfied this requirement. However, details of that contact were not shared.
(2) Auburn is required to provide the conference with a written plan for ensuring Freeze is committed to rules compliance and will receive proper oversight. An SEC spokesman told AL.com this was a matter between the league and the member institution.
(3) The university’s president, the faculty representative, athletic director and newly hired employee must meet with Sankey at the SEC office in Birmingham after the hire at a date to be determined. The meeting has not taken place, but Sankey said, “We’ll figure that out at the appropriate time.” According to the 2020 memo, it is to take place within 30 days of the hiring.
The parameters of the meeting are to review Freeze’s compliance record, including past NCAA infractions, discuss Auburn’s written plan and to make known any potential accountability for both Auburn and Freeze for any subsequent violations. Finally, the meeting is to confirm Freeze understands the compliance expectations of the institution and conference.
2018 memo sought Freeze suspension
In essence, the 2020 memo is a slimmed down version of the 2018 memo. On Dec. 1, 2017, Ole Miss received punishment from the NCAA for lack of institutional control and “an unconstrained culture of booster involvement in football recruiting.” The program was hit with three years of probation, a monetary penalty, a postseason ban in 2018, a suspension for Freeze (had he been on staff with an SEC team in any capacity in 2018), scholarship reductions, recruiting restrictions, show-cause penalties for various staffers and the vacation of 33 wins between 2010-16.
“In the fall of 2018, we had a number of institutions that considered hiring Hugh and were asking us about what had happened at his previous institution at that point at Ole Miss and any conference accountability that may apply,” Sankey said Thursday.
“It seemed – and, in fact, was – appropriate to put everybody on the same plane with consistent information about how we would handle the consideration and the follow up from an accountability standpoint.”
In short, Ole Miss was in the midst of NCAA sanctions and the league had to hold Freeze accountable.
As noted in the 2018 memo obtained by AL.com and never previously published, there were additional stipulations because Freeze was charged with a Level 1 violation (NCAA Bylaw 11.1.1.1, head coach control):
- Freeze would have been prohibited from off-campus recruiting activities until Aug. 1, 2019.
- Freeze would have been required to attend an NCAA Regional Rules meeting in 2019 and 2020.
- Because Freeze was responsible for the violations committed by members of his staff (he failed to monitor certain aspects of the recruiting process), Sankey, citing Bylaw 19.9.5.5, declared “any member institution hiring the head coach as a head football coach during a one-year period, Dec. 1, 2017, through Nov. 30, 2018, shall suspend the head coach for the first two conference contests of the 2018 football season.” An SEC spokesman confirmed to AL.com the suspension would have been enforced for any coaching position, not just as a head coach.
These stipulations, however, didn’t carry over to his 2022 hiring.
“As it relates to the 2018 memo, everything is now invalid other than the meeting, the compliance oversight plan and the review of that oversight plan,” Sankey explained.
The 2020 memo, it should be noted, uses generic terms like president, athletic director and newly hired employee. The 2018 version is specifically in reference to Freeze.
“We’ve really gone to more of the standard memo from Nov. 20,” Sankey said. “There could be different needs depending on the facts of the matter. I would not call it a ‘standard’ as it happened in other circumstances. It may have been done verbally but given the amount of interest across our league in 2018, we needed a way to communicate consistently. That’s why there was a memo.”
Did Sankey block Freeze’s 2018 hiring?
No, not according to the commissioner.
Sankey contends, citing bylaw 19.8.1.2, the universities make hires.
However, months prior to Sankey’s memo being sent in 2018, AL.com reported, citing sources, Alabama was one of at least five SEC schools that had contact with Freeze about on-field jobs. Alabama coach Nick Saban wanted to hire Freeze as a co-offensive coordinator and position coach.
The report contends Sankey encouraged Alabama not to hire Freeze, and that’s the reason why Saban couldn’t add Freeze to his staff in the offseason. When Saban was asked about the report that spring, he said, in part, “We also have a lot of respect for the SEC and what they think is, in some cases, best for the league relative to circumstances that people created for themselves.”
“We actually don’t do that,” Sankey said when asked about blocking hires. “So, they get to make their hiring decisions. That’s never been a debate. Some of the writings of ‘what if’ or ‘what this’ or ‘what that’ are just people speculating. It is made very clear in our bylaw that our institutions are solely responsible for their hiring decisions.”
Bylaw 19.8.1.2 reads, in part, “Each member institution makes its own hiring decisions.”
“I thought Hugh was going to be back in the conference back in 2018,” Sankey said. “That’s when the Liberty opportunity materialized. It obviously didn’t take place. That’s why it is important to be clear that memo was at a time based on a set of circumstances within a year of after the announcement of the Ole Miss infractions case and does not affect now.”
Liberty hired Freeze in Dec. 2018, nearly a year after schools like Alabama were interested in hiring him as an on-field assistant coach. Before landing the Liberty job, Freeze, who did not coach anywhere that season, was expected to take an offensive coordinator job with the Arizona Hotshots of the Alliance of American Football (AAF) league.
In Sankey’s 2020 memo to SEC schools, he wrote, “As I have stated repeatedly, institutions make their own hiring decisions. The purpose of SEC Bylaw 19.8.1.2 is to assist institutions in making informed hiring decisions and, when a candidate has a serious infraction in his or her past, to ensure the President or Chancellor is aware of this information prior to an offer of employment being made.”
When asked if previous reports of him blocking potential hires, specifically Freeze, were “wrong,” Sankey preferred not to elaborate.
“I don’t respond to people speculating about what happened or didn’t happen,” Sankey explained. “I’ll read you the plain text of the bylaw: ‘While each member institution makes its own hiring decisions, member institutions shall, at a minimum, request specific information from each candidate concerning his or her rules compliance record and communicate with the NCAA enforcement staff and conference office regarding the same prior to offering employment.’
“So, they make their own hiring decisions. I can’t be any more clear than that.”
Freeze was asked at his introductory press conference on Monday about the SEC previously blocking his return and said, “I’m not sure that’s accurate. I believe I had chances to get into the league as an offensive coordinator and I chose to go to Liberty as the head coach. I’m pretty confident of that.”
Bylaw 19.8.1.2 revised because of Freeze?
The bylaw, which deals with hiring practices, is a part of the 2020 memo. The memo states the bylaw was revised on June 2, 2017.
That was just more than three months after Ole Miss received its second Notice of Allegations (Feb. 22, 2017) and four days before Ole Miss released its response to the NCAA (June 6, 2017), which included a defense of Freeze, claiming he did not facilitate or participate in violations, nor did he otherwise ignore potential red flags.
The revision was the addition of the first two paragraphs, which can be read in full below. Was it revised because of Freeze’s case? An SEC spokesman sent a statement on the matter.
The intent, which was made available to the media at the 2017 spring meetings, is “to specify that a member institution shall thoroughly evaluate an individual’s record of rules compliance prior to offering employment in any coaching position or noncoaching position with sport-specific responsibilities. Further, to specify that an institution’s President or Chancellor is expected to consult with the Commissioner prior to offering employment to an individual who has either engaged in unethical conduct or participated in activity that resulted in a major infraction.”
Less than two months after the revisions, Freeze resigned as Ole Miss head coach after then-Rebels athletics director Ross Bjork said the university found a “concerning pattern” of behavior. Freeze resigned eight days after former Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt filed a lawsuit against Ole Miss, alleging the program orchestrated a misinformation campaign to place blame for the NCAA allegations on Nutt and his former staff. The lawsuit settled in October 2017.
Sankey Note to SEC by Jeremy W. Gray on Scribd
Sankey Memo on Hugh Freeze by Jeremy W. Gray on Scribd
Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.