Ole Miss Baseball Faces Backlash After Pulling Brett Harris Scholarship

Adversity is nothing new for Iowa baseball’s incoming freshman, Brett Harris. A native of Epsworth, Iowa, he had been committed to Ole Miss for four years until the Rebels pulled his scholarship at the end of June.

As reported in a story by USA Today’s Ehsan Kassim, Harris received a phone call from Ole Miss baseball coach Mike Bianco on June 28th. It was days after he graduated from Western Dubuque High School, and amidst a four-year bout with a cancerous brain tumor, Harris learned that he’d no longer have an opportunity at Ole Miss.

"When he got on the call, the first thing he said was, 'We have some bad news,'" Harris said of what Bianco told him.

Harris was diagnosed with a brain tumor during his freshman year of high school. A two-sport athlete, starring in both football and baseball, underwent radiation treatment in 2023 and eventually was forced to step away from football for two seasons before returning for his senior year.

Jun 8, 2019; Fayetteville, AR, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Mike Bianco watches from the dugout during the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Baum-Walker Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Rojo-USA TODAY Sports | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Yet, throughout that time, Harris remained focused on baseball, where he was verbally pledged to play at Ole Miss.

Not About Baseball

However, after graduating high school and just days after coaches from the Rebels had come to see him play, he was informed of his lost scholarship. A decision in which Harris’s father, Scott, told USA Today he believed was one not made for baseball reasons.

"It wasn't about his ability, because he's played really well," he said. "It was more the concern if he had to go up to Mayo Clinic and leave Ole Miss ... We want to take the high road, but we also want to say our disappointment in letting a kid know a month before a school year is going to start."

For Brett, the news of the ill-fated phone call from Bianco didn’t entirely sink in immediately.

"A month and a half before (going to college), what's a kid supposed to do," Harris said. "You're not giving a kid much of a chance after four years of being loyal to you ... You're not giving him much of a chance to go out and find a new school."

Luckily for the Iowa native, the in-state Hawkeyes reached out to Harris with a scholarship opportunity. One that the Rebels had just taken away, even after Harris’s brother Calvin was a part of the Ole Miss national championship team in 2022.

Calvin wasn’t just a mere member of that team, though; he was a standout player. During that national championship season, Calvin played in 43 games as a catcher, boasting a .336 batting average .417 on-base percentage as he totaled three home runs and 21 RBIs.

Brett committed to the Rebels in April of 2023, right in the midst of Calvin’s final season in Oxford, joining the Chicago White Sox as the fourth-round pick in the 2023 MLB Amateur Draft.

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