Freeze resigns: Five programs set to benefit

In the end, an escort service did him in.

Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze survived NCAA investigations and dodged allegations of recruiting violations only to be hung out to dry by phone records. On Thursday, the embattled coach resigned amid reports that the Rebels’ athletic department discovered multiple calls to a Tampa-based escort service made from his university-issued phone. More facts about the situation will likely emerge throughout the week, but the fact that a coaching change will take place in Oxford is already clear.

Below, Rivals.com takes a look at the five teams that stand to benefit most from Freeze’s removal as Ole Miss’ head coach.

MORE: Recruits react | Yahoo Sports details Freeze's resignation | Farrell's analysis

This is the obvious one.

While it hasn’t exactly matched the total chaos unfolding in Oxford, the situation in Starkville hasn’t exactly been stable in recent years. The Bulldogs used their APR to mosh their way into a bowl game despite a losing record a year ago, and head coach Dan Mullen is probably another poor season away from feeling his seat heat up significantly. The Bulldogs received a nice little recruiting boost in state when Ole Miss started battling NCAA investigations, and a coaching change in Oxford will help that cause. Ole Miss has been perceived as the state’s marquee program for years now, so this is a chance to turn that tide. Mississippi State is among those hoping for the Rebels’ athletic department to botch its upcoming coaching search.

LSU is wading through a new era, and this certainly helps the cause. The Ed Orgeron regime is still in its infancy, so this couldn’t have come at a better time for the Tigers. LSU routinely runs up against the Rebels on the recruiting trail in Mississippi and Louisiana and will take any advantage it can get on that front. Seeing Ole Miss fall deeper into uncertainly certainly hands the Tigers a trump card in those battles, as Orgeron and company are suddenly seen as miles more stable that a coach-less program in the midst of a multilayered NCAA investigation.

The Crimson Tide doesn’t exactly need the help, but it will certainly welcome the peace of mind.

This has to be seen as the death knell for an Ole Miss program that had given the Bama trouble in spots over the last few years. The Rebels' recruiting pull against Nick Saban had long since dried up. That happened when the NCAA investigation began to gain steam. Still, it has to be nice for Saban and company to know those days are firmly in the past. Obviously, the Rebels could find a way to make a slam dunk hire that renews the short-lived recruiting rivalry, but Alabama is millions of miles away from scared at this juncture.

This may sound nonsensical, but it’s not totally insane… possibly.

Even if the escort service calls were unrelated to the NCAA investigation, parting ways with Freeze could help perception. Rightly or wrongly, prospects had started to associate Freeze with uncertainty at Ole Miss, so a fresh start could end up helping the Rebels in the long run. There’s no guarantee that the program was going to be able to recruit at anything resembling a competitive level under Freeze, so a new regime could provide hope. Of course, most of what’s to come will depend on the impending hire, so there’s no way of knowing how things will play out in the coming year. At the very least, however, it’s a chance for the Rebels to start over and sell a newfound stability to recruits.

There isn’t one particular reason this boosts Auburn, but having one less team mining the state of Alabama for talent will certainly help. Currently, Ole Miss has commitments from three Alabama-based prospects. And while none of the three is highly ranked and it’s unclear if the Tigers will even be interested in any of them going forward, the bigger picture is what’s important here.

Ole Miss has been a player in the state in recent years, and there’s nothing like an ever-growing scandal to remedy that. Auburn ranks light years above both Ole Miss and Mississippi State on the stability scale, so it should make their battle to recruit Mississippi-based products, at the least, a tad easier.