according to ESPN<\/a>. The investigation reportedly remains in the early stages.<\/p>\nFerrelli transferred from California, enrolled at Clemson and left for Ole Miss. He won 2025 ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n
Luke Ferrelli #12 of the Mississippi Rebels during the 2026 Ole Miss Spring Football Practice at Vaught Hemingway Stadium on April 28, 2026 in Oxford, Mississippi. Getty Images for ONIT<\/p>\n
An NCAA assistant director of enforcement emailed an Ole Miss official on Jan. 23, a couple of hours before a news conference in which Swinney blasted Golding for alleged cheating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for speaking with us earlier today,\u201d the associate director wrote in the email Ole Miss senior associate athletic director for compliance. \u201cAs we discussed, the enforcement staff is opening an investigation into the football program at the University of Mississippi. Additionally, please let this email serve as a reminder that the institution and its representatives have an affirmative and automatic duty under Bylaw 19.2 to preserve all relevant materials.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NCAA requested forensic imaging of Ole Miss coach Pete Golding\u2019s phone as well as several other named members of the staff who might have contacted Ferrelli. <\/p>\n
The same request was made of Ferrelli\u2019s phone records from December 2025 through January 2026.<\/p>\n
The lines of tampering have been blurred further than ever by the transfer portal and NIL, but Swinney called Ole Miss\u2019 recruitment of Ferrelli a \u201cstraightforward case of tampering.\u201d <\/p>\n
Head coach Pete Golding of the Ole Miss Rebels looks on in the first quarter against the Miami Hurricanes during the 2025 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium on January 08, 2026 in Glendale, Arizona. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Golding replied that there are \u201ctwo sides to every story.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this case, Ferrelli signed a contract, enrolled in classes and began offseason football training with Clemson before winding up at Ole Miss.<\/p>\n
Swinney said that on Jan. 14 agent Ryan Williams contacted Clemson general manager Jordan Sorrells to say that \u201cOle Miss was going hard\u201d after Ferrelli. <\/p>\n
Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney watches a replay on the big screen during a college football game between the Furman Paladins and the Clemson Tigers on November 22, 2025 at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, S.C. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Sorrells contacted Ole Miss general manager Austin Thomas and asked that the Rebels cease further communication with Ferrelli. <\/p>\n
Golding allegedly asked Ferrelli what buyout number Clemson included in his NIL deal and sent a photo of a $1 million contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clemson blew the whistle on Ole Miss football and the NCAA heard it. The NCAA enforcement staff opened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[843,331,23337,382,7,1565,49,48,9],"class_list":["post-899792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-clemson-tigers","tag-college-football","tag-college-football-transfer-portal","tag-dabo-swinney","tag-football","tag-mississippi-rebels","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116628565741186936","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}