Top SEC Stories of 2017

[jbcarol]

Hugh Kellenberger‏Verified account @HKellenbergerCL

The shot that shocked the world. The phone records that did the same thing. 2017 — it was kinda a weird year in Mississippi.

2017 was dominated by scandal — Ole Miss, the NCAA and Hugh Freeze account for three of the top 10 stories of the year and influenced at least one more.

7. Tom Mars, Houston Nutt and Ole Miss

So, what if we told you that Ole Miss' former coach (the one who won six games his last two years) felt like the school unfairly blamed him for its NCAA troubles, so he hired an attorney? And that attorney asked for Hugh Freeze's phone records, gave them to an MSU fan/reporter and said person found a call to an escort service. And that even after Freeze resigned in disgrace and Ole Miss and Nutt agreed to a settlement, his attorney, Mars, continued to be a thorn in the Rebels' side by representing players looking to transfer?

5. Ole Miss upsets Mississippi State in Egg Bowl

4. Dan Mullen leaves MSU, which hires Joe Moorhead

3. NCAA verdict handed down at Ole Miss

Ole Miss finally received the NCAA's ruling from its football violations case, which added a second year to the bowl ban, the loss of three more scholarships (to 13), gave show causes to two former staff members and let Freeze off with a light punishment. Ole Miss is appealing the penalties, namely the bowl ban (which allowed for some players to transfer), but the five-year-long process has basically drawn to a close.

2. Hugh Freeze resigns in July

Back to the text message. Ole Miss looked at other phone records, found "a pattern of personal misconduct" and Freeze was forced to resign two weeks before the start of training camp. That Freeze did not last at Ole Miss was not all that surprising, but how it happened and why it did were. He remains unemployed, while his replacement, Matt Luke, guided the team to a 6-6 season, an Egg Bowl win and got the permanent job.

1. Mississippi State shocks UConn

For one night the sporting world focused its attention on women's college basketball...