Ole Miss will allow players to transfer to any school now.

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After initially restricting football transfers, Ole Miss changes its tune in face of backlash

Their sons both play football at Mississippi. Jarrion Street is a true sophomore reserve linebacker; redshirt sophomore Van Jefferson was the Rebels’ second-leading receiver in 2017. And when the NCAA hit Ole Miss Friday with a second postseason ban, this one for 2018 after the self-imposed ban for this season, the players quickly requested permission to contact other schools in search of a transfer. Several other Rebels did the same.

Permission to contact was granted Monday — with limitations. No other Southeastern Conference school can contact Street or Jefferson, nor the eight non-conference opponents on the Ole Miss schedule in 2018 and ’19.

While limiting transfer options is shamefully common in college athletics, the circumstances here are quite uncommon. Despite major rule-breaking by the school and despite what the parents of those players describe as institutional dishonesty about the potential sanctions, Ole Miss was still refusing to permit players to transfer without restriction.

Until Tuesday. Faced with more negative headlines in a year full of them, the athletic department had an abrupt change of policy. After receiving a Yahoo Sports request for comment on the situation shortly after noon ET, the school released a statement at 1:20 p.m. saying that it is removing transfer restrictions.

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