Sarah HendersonThe final shoe of the NCAA’s investigation fell on Ole Miss Football on Monday night when the association forced the Rebels to vacate 33 wins over six seasons spanning from 2010 to 2016.
The games vacated include two Egg Bowls (2012 and 2014), a Magnolia Bowl (2013) and one bowl game (2012). The Rebels also lost official credit for their defeat of No. 3 Alabama in 2014 in Oxford. Not included in the sanctions were any games from the 2015 season that saw Ole Miss knock off Alabama in Tuscaloosa and win the Sugar Bowl.
When a program “vacates wins,” according to NCAA rules, the games do not turn from wins into losses in the record books. Instead, it’s as if Ole Miss never played the games in question, leaving very abbreviated official win totals in each of these six seasons.
Before the vacating of the games, Hugh Freeze’s official mark as head coach in Oxford was 39-25 overall and 19-21 in SEC play. Following the NCAA’s penalties, his official record now stands at 12-25 and 6-21 in conference play.
Along with Freeze’s records being impacted, former Rebel players took a blow in the record books as well — notably, quarterbacks Bo Wallace and Chad Kelly. While their official stats were not impacted by the penalties, the win-loss records for these former Rebel signal-callers were tarnished.
Entering Monday, Bo Wallace’s official records as a Rebel stood as follows:
2012: 7-6 (3-5)
2013: 8-5 (3-5)
2014: 9-4 (5-3)
Total: 24-15 (11-13)
Come Monday night, however, Wallace’s wins and losses at Ole Miss looked like this:
2012: 0-6 (0-5)
2013: 1-5 (0-5)
2014: 1-4 (0-3)
Total: 2-15 (0-13)
Although the NCAA officially stripped Wallace of many of his wins as a Rebel, his career stats at Ole Miss remain intact. Wallace’s 10,478 total career yards is still the most in Ole Miss history, and his total career touchdowns (81), career passing yards (9,534) and career passing touchdowns (62) are second-most all-time among Rebel quarterbacks.
The same can be said for former Rebel Chad Kelly and his two-year career as a Rebel. While Kelly’s 2015 junior year Sugar Bowl campaign was not affected by the NCAA’s penalties, his injury-shortened senior run in 2016 was practically stripped. The 2016 season now stands as an 0-5 campaign for Kelly, with all five losses in SEC play.
Kelly’s record-setting career at Ole Miss still stands as well, as he ranks third among Ole Miss quarterbacks in total career yards (7,632), total career touchdowns (65), career passing yards (6,800) and career passing touchdowns (50).
Although vacating wins from programs does little for the public who saw the games transpire, it does serve as the NCAA’s way of “erasing” games in which they believe ineligible student athletes participated, even if the stats from all of the student athletes survive the purge.
