It’s been nearly a week since Clemson coach Dabo Swinney publicly accused Ole Miss, and Pete Golding specifically, of “blatant tampering.” And since then, nothing of substance has happened.
Ole Miss hasn’t responded.
Golding hasn’t responded.
The NCAA told The Athletic it’s “looking into it,” which doesn’t mean much.
And Clemson still hasn’t produced anything resembling actual evidence. All we have is a coach with two national titles and a microphone promising to “turn Ole Miss in.”
“I am not going to let someone flat out tamper with my program,” Swinney said. “If you tamper with my players, I’m going to turn you in. There’s a lot more I can say, but I’m going to let the NCAA do its job.”
Should Ole Miss respond publicly?
No. Nothing good comes from a mid‑investigation press conference. Defendants who talk usually regret it. Golding’s best move is to stay silent and keep tweeting shark emojis.
Should Ole Miss fire back and accuse others of tampering?
Also no. It’s not Golding’s style, it would sound petty, and, most importantly, everyone already knows tampering is happening everywhere.
Darian Mensah didn’t spontaneously decide to leave Duke for Miami last week. Someone reached out. Someone made sure he knew what awaited him. That’s tampering by definition.
Will Ole Miss be punished?
Maybe. The NCAA has a long history of punishing the wrong things and the wrong people. But with the number of lawsuits it’s juggling, it’s hard to imagine the organization volunteering for another courtroom boxing match just to make an example out of one school.
And even if punishment comes, the menu is limited: scholarship reductions, a temporary ban on signing Clemson transfers, a fine, maybe a one‑game suspension for Golding. Anything more would be absurd given that every program in the country is operating in the same gray market. If Clemson talked to Luke Ferrelli or his agent before January 2, that’s tampering too, right? Should Cal be up in arms about that?
Which brings us to the real issue: the NCAA is trying to police a system it allowed to spiral out of control.
Everyone knows tampering is rampant. ESPN said as much in November.
Coaches know it. Players know it. Agents know it.
The only entity pretending otherwise is the one responsible for creating the vacuum that made tampering inevitable.
And now the NCAA is stuck. If it punishes Ole Miss, it exposes its own selective enforcement. If it doesn’t, it confirms what everyone already believes: that it has no real authority left.
Either way, the organization is cornered by a mess of its own making, and no amount of investigations or sternly worded statements is going to clean it up.
