Today the NCAA placed Mississippi State University on a four-year probation for four years because of football recruiting violations that occurred between 1998 and 2004. The NCAA stripped the university of eight scholarships over the next two seasons and banned Mississippi State from any 2004 postseason play. Also, the NCAA cut the school’s expense-paid recruiting visits in each of the 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years to 45, which is 11 fewer than the NCAA maximum. Former Coach Jackie Sherrill escaped a bit unscathed: Allegations of unethical conduct against him were dismissed.
Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.
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