Jackson Jambalaya

If you ask me, Bernie Ebbers is an honest man compared to Haley Barbour and his corporate-socialist, crony-capitalist Mississippi buddies. I would like to see Barbour or Phil Bryant build a company that got as big and famous as MCI did, globally, during it's heyday.

Uh, the main difference between Haley Barbour and Bernie Ebbers is that Mississippi is still standing and WorldCom isn't.

Yep....still standing counts for a lot.....

Ebbers was good at M&A but when it came to actual building he was a B-Leaguer.

What did Bernie have to do with MC going to Division 3? I thought it came in the wake of some embarrassing scandals from the Athletic Department timed with the infamous Dr. Lewis Nobles shennanigans....

Seeing the name Mississippi College/Lee Royce makes me want to puke!!!!

What the hell has any of this got to do with Bernie Ebbers or Haley Barbour? Maybe we should blame it on the bald-headed sexual deviant who was president over there for decades.

Cash donations, Dr. Nobles loved them

Wasn't this jump off the cliff to Div 3 the fallout from the end of the Noble era?

I would love to see the delta state vs. Mc rivalry renewed. I can't blame mc if they are scared, however.

I was there when it all went down. Head coach had affair with another coach's wife. They wound up getting married over spring break. When Nobles asked him about it, he lied to Nobles, who then fired him. Dow Yoder can confirm this as they yanked his scholly when he helped the coach move. The coach then later turned them in, here comes NCAA.

Now, Bernie led the charge on the board to move to III. THAT is why I mentioned him.

4:03, your blind! It seems you did not Ole Bernie! Bernie screwed me my brother and my father and we lost a hell of a lot of money!! He needs to stay where he is till he dies. He has earned a prison grave and it is waiting on him!

And a turtle is loose in Madison.

Yes, Nobles is/was a felon. He had sexual issues. Many of his inner circle had knowledge of what was going on. The athletic department was crooked as snakes back. John Williams had more cash floating around illegally than most D-1 programs in the nation. He had multiple DUI, and yes he had multiple affair and did marry one of his assistants coaches wife. The current administration ain't nothing to write home about either but they are not crooked, just gutless. However, MC remains a great education with some great professors. The time away from DII athletics not only allowed some cleaning house time but allowed MC to build up the facilities and enhance pay for faculty. The biggest winner in this is the students. DIII did not offer scholarships to players. DII does. That means more MS football players, basketball, baseball, etc. will have opportunity to play ball and get a great education who might not have had the chance before.

The Board of Trustees made a wise decision voting to move the Mississippi College athletic program back to NCAA Div. II, and will make an even wiser decision if the long term goal is to move toward NCAA Div. I-AA. MC offers excellent academics, an ideal location, a beautiful campus, and has the ability to competetively recruit student-athletes throught the entire southeastern United States. Despite the roller coaster of triumph & adversity, beginning in 1989, having the opportunity to play football on scholarship at MC was a tremendous blessing. When you bleed and suffer with teammates in a Div.II program, a special bond is formed that continues for life. Playing college athletics on scholarship does not mean you have a 'free' education. It means you will work harder than you ever thought possible to improve, compete, and win. Let's hope future MC teams can re-kindle that bond, both for themselves, and for all MC student and alumni. Let's work to focus positive attention on the future of the athletic program! Thanks Kingfish! GO CHOCTAWS!

Dow Yoder

This Los Angeles Times article is very good on the whole backstory:
http://articles.latimes.com/1995-02-21/news/mn-34481_1_college-president

They see all these other small schools cashing dem' benjamins for
playing the big elite schools like MSU.
"day got day money on da mind and day mind on da money"
Thats all.

Used the link provided by 10:07. Very interesting to revisit that history. Most of us had probably forgotten the Nobles Saga and many have never even heard of it.

Connecting invisible dots, that was the same time when a certain large Delta car dealership went bankrupt and, the owner, one of Nobles' board members (chairman?), who formerly appeared wealthy and hob-knobbed with Nobles, was suddenly broke and left that Delta town to move to Clinton.

None of this received press coverage as no connection surfaced or was suggested. And, back then, such players were always in cohoots and good standing with publishers of newspapers.

I'd like to see the College move into a higher level of football and get back into the scholarship level. Still don't know what Bernie had to do with any of it or why Bernie would have had an interest in 'downgrading' the program.

College athletics especially american football runs counter to the purpose of the institution. Athletics in high school has a community and social purpose, but the physical risk of these contact sports is finally becoming acknowledged. Tribalism has no place in higher education and Governor Barbour was correct in pointing out the need to fund athletics privately instead of draining limited education budgets.

what an amazing array of comments under a post that is supposed to be good news. Congrats to MC, and yes its about damn time!

And all of the comments about MC's dark period are true. I can't speak to Bernie's honesty versus Barbour's, but I can say he is more honest that Scott Sullivan, who is worth nothing more than fish food.

9:21 sez college athletics has a polar opposite purpose from that of an educational institution. He further suggests athletics should not be funded by the taxpayer. I'm reminded of Tom Head who harps on such subjects yet he has never even attended an educational institution, opting instead for home schooling and internet coursework. Or perhaps 9:21 was always in the library basement wearing horn-rimmed glasses and white socks on game day.