Earlier this month, the NCAA concluded after a lengthy case that the Ole Miss program lacked institutional control and fostered an unconstrained culture of booster involvement in football recruiting. As such, it imposed a number of sanctions including a two-year bowl ban, meaning it added on one more year to the current one-year bowl ban self-imposed by the school.

As part of the fallout of those sanctions, it was expected that a number of Ole Miss players would request to transfer from the program. Initially, Ole Miss placed restrictions on which programs were permitted to contact players; the most common restrictions include conference opponents and teams on the Rebels' future nonconference schedules.

However, Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports reports that those restrictions have been lifted for anyone seeking transfer. An email sent to CBS Sports from the program explains the situation as follows ...

As far as the limitations initially placed on the permission to contact, the restrictions are common. Until we were notified this morning, none of the student-athletes had communicated they were unhappy with those restrictions. Frankly, if they had any objections and a legitimate reason to seek transfer to one of the limited schools, we would ordinarily work through those issues with the student-athlete and his family. The student-athlete's best interest is always the priority. Coach Luke and Ross Bjork discussed the matter this morning. To be consistent, they are removing any restrictions on their permission to contact for all those who have requested permission. Our compliance office has reached out to the student-athletes to let them know.

However, some normal transfer protocol remains in place. Ole Miss also notes that for a player to be immediately eligible, "the transferring school still needs to seek a waiver from the NCAA. If they transfer to a school in the SEC, that school would also have to seek a waiver from the conference under conference rules."

The exception to that are seniors currently with Ole Miss, who have the ability to transfer to other FBS institutions without sitting out a year as generally mandated by the NCAA.

Among those who could transfer is star quarterback Shea Patterson. Ole Miss has reportedly allowed Patterson to explore his options. Bruce Feldman of Sports Illustrated reports that Patterson and Rebels safety Deontay Anderson will be taking a visit to Michigan.