Ole Miss Is Banned From Bowl Games, TV for One Year for Illegal Recruiting

The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. hit the University of Mississippi football program with a one-year suspension from postseason play and live television Friday and took away 10 scholarships for next season.

In addition, two Rebel players--star wide receiver J.R. Ambrose and backup fullback Johnny Boatman--were declared ineligible.

The sanctions followed a two-year investigation by the NCAA and the school. The 10-page report listed violations of NCAA requirements and “questionable practices” in the recruitment of football players.

“We have made some mistakes,” Coach Billy Brewer told a news conference. “We are being punished for those mistakes, and we do not intend ever to be in this situation again.”

The sanctions also bar Ole Miss from conducting its annual football camp next summer and in 1988. The school had earlier told the NCAA that its camp was being dropped for two years because of violations uncovered.

The sanctions go into effect after the Rebels’ Dec. 20 Independence Bowl game against Texas Tech at Shreveport, La.

Under the sanctions, Mississippi will be barred from television during the 1987 season and would be ineligible to play in a bowl game after the season. It will be able to sign only 20 student-athletes to football scholarships in 1987, instead of the usual 30.