Ole Miss Investigated by NCAA After Dabo Swinney Accusations

Clemson's Dabo Swinney has never been one to bite his tongue.

So when he felt Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding was tampering with one of his players - linebacker Luke Ferrelli - Swinney didn't hesitate to publicly put him and the Rebels on blast.

"This is a whole other level of tampering," Swinney said back at the end of July. "It’s total hypocrisy. … This is a really sad state of affairs. We have a broken system, and if there are no consequences for tampering, then we have no rules and we have no governance."

Swinney's accusations ultimately led to an NCAA investigation into Ole Miss over the tampering allegations.

"The NCAA enforcement staff opened an investigation of the Ole Miss football program the same day that Clemson coach Dabo Swinney accused Rebels coach Pete Golding of tampering with linebacker Luke Ferrelli," ESPN's David Hale and Mark Schlabach wrote.

"According to documents obtained by ESPN through an open-records request, an NCAA associate director of enforcement emailed Ole Miss senior associate athletic director for compliance Taylor Hall on Jan. 23, a couple of hours before a news conference in which Swinney blasted Golding for allegedly tampering with Ferrelli, who, after transferring from California, had enrolled at Clemson before then leaving for Ole Miss."

As part of the investigation, the NCAA requested that phone records for Golding's university-issued and personal phone records, as well as Ferelli's phone, and the phones of Ole Miss general manager Austin Thomas, inside linebackers coach Jay Shoop, outside linebackers coach Matt Kitchens, senior associate athletic director for strategy/cap management Matt McLaughlin, and director of player personnel Jai Choudhary to be examined to determine if there was, indeed, any inappropriate communication between the two sides.

All phones were also asked to be forensically imaged as well.

The investigation is ongoing and "still in the early stages," according to ESPN.

If the NCAA finds Ole Miss did tamper with Ferrelli, Golding could be subject to suspension up to six games, and Ole Miss could receive a postseason ban (which would take it out of College Football Playoff contention), a reduction in scholarships, and a fine equal to up to 20% of the school's football budget.

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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 7:36 PM.