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Ole Miss was investigated by the NCAA about paying thousands of dollars to top tier players to go to their college. This happens with many colleges including Ole Miss and their biggest rival Mississippi State

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Here's a timeline of the Deflategate investigation of the New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady. Data are from ESPN Stats & Information.

Jan. 19, 2015: KTHR Colts reporter Bob Kravitz tweets that the Patriots would be investigated for reportedly deflating footballs. Asked about the issue, coach Bill Belichick says, "I really don't know what to say or know anything about what we're talking about here. Whatever it is, we'll cooperate with them the best we can." On his weekly radio hit for WEEI, Brady calls the accusations "ridiculous."

Jan. 20, 2015: Newsday reports the Colts noticed something unusual after an interception by Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson in the second quarter. Jackson gave the ball to a member of the Colts' equipment staff, who noticed the ball seemed underinflated and notified coach Chuck Pagano.

Jan. 20, 2015: ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports that 11 of the 12 balls used in the first half of the game were significantly underinflated.

Jan. 23, 2015: Belichick addresses media and says the Patriots are cooperating with the league. "I have no explanation for what happened. That's what they're looking into." Brady, in an appearance a few hours later, says, "I didn't alter the ball in any way." He says he had yet to talk to the NFL.

Jan. 23 2015: The league issues a statement that an investigation is ongoing, with executive vice president Jeff Pash and Ted Wells leading the probe. (Wells led the league's investigation into allegations of workplace misconduct with the Dolphins in November 2013.) The investigation was to also look into the chain-of-custody protocol for all game personnel.

Jan. 23, 2015: Jackson tells the Indianapolis Star that he had nothing to do with tipping off the league to underinflated balls. Jackson said he gave the ball to the Colts' equipment staff to save for him as a "souvenir."

Jan. 23, 2015: Colts general manager Ryan Grigson declines comment on who notified the league about potential deflation.

Jan. 24, 2015: Belichick, in another news conference, discusses the science behind the PSI rates and detailing the Patriots' process for preparing balls, saying that the team's process of getting balls ready raised the air pressure by one pound per square inch. He then discusses putting his QBs through tests to see if they could tell the difference in balls at different air pressures. He insisted the balls weren't prepared in a heated room, or treated in any unique way. A clearly irritated Belichick then cites "My Cousin Vinny" character Mona Lisa Vito. "I'm not a scientist. I'm not an expert on footballs or football measurements. I'm just telling you what I know," Belichick said. "I would not say I'm the Mona Lisa Vito of the football world as she was in the car expertise area."

Jan. 26, 2015: FoxSports reports that league investigators have interviewed a Patriots' locker room attendant who was seen on surveillance video taking the footballs from the officials' locker room into another room at Gillette Stadium before bringing them out to the field before kickoff against the Colts. ProFootballTalk.com then says the attendant was captured on video carrying two bags of balls into the bathroom and exiting the bathroom 90 seconds later. The report says the surveillance video was given by the Patriots to the NFL early in the investigation. The locker room attendant has not been identified.

Jan. 26, 2015: When the Patriots arrive in Arizona for the Super Bowl, owner Robert Kraft tells reporters, "It bothers me greatly that their reputations and integrity -- and by association, that of our team -- has been called into question this past week. ... If the [NFL] investigation is not able to definitively determine that our organization tampered with the air pressure in the footballs, I would expect and hope that the league would apologize to our entire team, and in particular, coach Belichick and Tom Brady for what they have had to endure this past week."

Jan. 26, 2015: Wells says in a statement he expects the investigation to take at least several more weeks.

Feb. 3, 2015: NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent says in an interview for "60 Minutes Sports" that Grigson told the NFL in the second quarter of the AFC Championship Game that the Patriots might be tampering with the footballs.

May 6, 2015: The Wells report is released, and it states the NFL found it "more probable than not" that Patriots personnel deliberately deflated footballs during the AFC Championship Game, and that Brady was probably "at least generally aware" of the rules violations. Among the evidence were text messages between equipment assistant John Jastremski and locker room manager Jim McNally that implicated Brady. In investigating Brady, Wells said he was hindered by Brady's refusal to provide his own emails, texts or phone records. But using Jastremski's phone records, Wells found an increase in the frequency of phone calls and texts between Brady and the equipment assistant shortly after suspicions of tampering went public. After not communicating via phone or text for six months, they spoke six times on the phone over the course of three days.

May 11, 2015: Punishments for Brady and the Patriots are handed down, with Brady being suspended four games and the team being fined $1 million and surrendering two draft picks: a first-round pick in 2016 and a fourth-round pick in 2017. Chairman and CEO Kraft criticized the investigation, calling it one-sided and saying Brady has the team's "unconditional support." He admonished the league for the severity of the punishment and for dismissing "scientific evidence supported by the Ideal Gas Law in the final report." Brady would appeal, his agent said.

May 12, 2015: The Patriots issue a lengthy, point-by-point rebuttal of the Wells report on the website wellsreportcontext.com. In the rebuttal, the Patriots say the Wells report's conclusions are "incomplete, incorrect, and lack context," and don't factor in scientific evidence. The rebuttal also stated that texts between McNally and Jastremski using the word "deflator" were a joke about weight loss.

May 15, 2015: The NFLPA releases the letter officially notifying the NFL of Brady's appeal. As expected, the union asks Goodell to step aside as an arbitrator, as it intends to call Goodell and Troy Vincent as witnesses.

May 15, 2015: The Associated Press reports the NFL plans to change guidelines on how footballs are handled before games and will discuss the changes at the owners meetings May 20-21 in San Francisco.

May 15, 2015: ESPN's Darren Rovell reports that an E-Poll indicates Brady's personal popularity has slipped to the point where people are nearly equally split on whether they like him or not.

May 15, 2015: It's reported that Roderick MacKinnon, the Nobel laureate who contributed to the Patriots' rebuttal of the Wells report, is compensated by a drug company in which the Kraft Group is an investor.

May 17, 2015: The website The MMQB posts an interview with Kraft in which the Patriots owner says Brady is innocent and he believes the quarterback because "he has never lied to me and I have found no hard or conclusive evidence to the contrary." Kraft declines to comment on whether he'll go to court to fight the NFL's discipline against the team, his relationship with Goodell and why the team suspended the two clubhouse employees if the Patriots think they did nothing wrong.

May 18, 2015: ESPN's Adam Schefter reports there are "back-channel conversations" between the NFL and the Patriots to see if the two can resolve their differences without an appeal of the team's discipline or litigation.

May 19, 2015: Goodell and Kraft met, spoke and hugged at a birthday party for CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus, sources tell Schefter. A witness says the men spoke privately at length.

May 19, 2015: Schefter reports the NFL asked the Patriots to suspend McNally and Jastremski before the Wells report was released. That time frame matches information released by the NFL on May 11, when the discipline against the team was handed down. The NFL denies the report.

May 19, 2015: Saying he doesn't want the rhetoric to continue and is opting to do what's best for the league, Kraft announces he's reluctantly accepting the NFL discipline levied on the team.

May 19, 2015: The NFLPA is quick to remind everyone that Kraft's announcement has no bearing on Brady's appeal of his four-game suspension and later, officially asks Goodell to recuse himself from hearing Brady's appeal. Mortensen reports the NFLPA has not received any official notice from the NFL that Goodell will actually hear Brady's appeal, nor has the union been given a date for the hearing.

May 19, 2015: After Kraft's announcement, there is quick and widespread reaction that Kraft had traded his decision to back off an appeal for some concession on Brady's suspension. Schefter reports that this is not the case, that the two were, indeed, separate issues.

May 20, 2015: Speaking after the NFL owners meetings in San Francisco, Goodell says that Kraft's decision to accept the league's punishment will not affect Brady's appeal of his four-game suspension. Goodell dodged the issue on whether he would remove himself as arbitrator for Brady's appeal, but said he was looking forward to hearing from Brady. Goodell also said the NFL did not ask the Patriots to suspend the employees implicated in the Wells report.

May 22, 2015: DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFLPA, reiterates to Outside the Lines host Bob Ley that the union wants Goodell to recuse himself from the Brady hearing. Asked if the NFLPA will go to court to try to block Goodell from hearing the appeal, Smith said: "It's our job to make decisions about process that are in the best interest of the client."

May 22, 2015: The NFL rejects the NFLPA's motion asking Goodell to recuse himself from hearing Brady's appeal. The decision was expected after Goodell said at the spring owners meetings that he looked forward to hearing directly from Brady.

May 29, 2015: It is reported the NFL will hear Brady's appeal beginning on June 23.

June 2, 2015: Goodell officially informs the NFLPA he will not recuse himself and will hear Brady's appeal. In a letter to the union, Goodell cited his responsibility under the labor agreement to "serve as hearing officer in any appeal involving conduct detrimental to the integrity of the game." But Goodell also wrote that his mind is "open" and "there has been no prejudgment and no bias that warrants the recusal."

Nov. 23, 2015: A federal appeals court in New York announces that the NFL's hearing on its appeal will be held March 3.

Feb. 25, 2016: The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York announced the judges who will hear the NFL's appeal of the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Berman to overturn the league's four-game suspension of Brady. Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann, Judge Barrington D. Parker and Judge Denny Chin will preside.

April 25, 2016: Brady's suspension is reinstated.

June 1, 2016: It has been 500 days since Deflategate started.

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Deflategate timeline: After 544 days, Tom Brady gives in

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Here's a timeline of the Deflategate investigation of the New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady. Data are from ESPN Stats & Information. Jan. 19, 2015: KTHR Colts reporter Bob Kravitz tweets that the Patriots would be investigated for reportedly deflating footballs.

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Table of Contents

1. The Watergate Break-In

2. Nixon's Obstruction of Justice

3. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein Investigate

4. The Saturday Night Massacre

5. Nixon Resigns

The Watergate scandal began early in the morning of June 17, 1972, when several burglars were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate complex of buildings in Washington, D.C. This was no ordinary robbery: The prowlers were connected to President Richard Nixon's reelection campaign, and they had been caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents. Nixon took aggressive steps to cover up the crimes, but when Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed his role in the conspiracy, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. The Watergate scandal changed American politics forever, leading many Americans to question their leaders and think more critically about the presidency.

The Watergate Break-In

The origins of the Watergate break-in lay in the hostile political climate of the time. By 1972, when Republican President Richard M. Nixon was running for reelection, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War, and the country was deeply divided.

A forceful presidential campaign therefore seemed essential to the president and some of his key advisers. Their aggressive tactics included what turned out to be illegal espionage. In May 1972, as evidence would later show, members of Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President (known derisively as CREEP) broke into the Democratic National Committee's Watergate headquarters, stole copies of top-secret documents and bugged the office's phones.

Did you know? Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein deserve a great deal of the credit for uncovering the details of the Watergate scandal. Their reporting won them a Pulitzer Prize and was the basis for their best-selling book "All the President's Men." Much of their information came from an anonymous whistleblower they called Deep Throat, who in 2005 was revealed to be W. Mark Felt, a former associate director of the FBI.

The wiretaps failed to work properly, however, so on June 17 a group of five burglars returned to the Watergate building. As the prowlers were preparing to break into the office with a new microphone, a security guard noticed someone had taped over several of the building's door locks. The guard called the police, who arrived just in time to catch them red-handed.

It was not immediately clear that the burglars were connected to the president, though suspicions were raised when detectives found copies of the reelection committee's White House phone number among the burglars' belongings.

In August, Nixon gave a speech in which he swore that his White House staff was not involved in the break-in. Most voters believed him, and in November 1972 the president was reelected in a landslide victory.

Nixon's Obstruction of Justice

It later came to light that Nixon was not being truthful. A few days after the break-in, for instance, he arranged to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in "hush money" to the burglars.

Then, Nixon and his aides hatched a plan to instruct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to impede the FBI 's investigation of the crime. This was a more serious crime than the break-in: It was an abuse of presidential power and a deliberate obstruction of justice.

Meanwhile, seven conspirators were indicted on charges related to the Watergate affair. At the urging of Nixon's aides, five pleaded guilty to avoid trial; the other two were convicted in January 1973.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein Investigate

By that time, a growing handful of people-including Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, trial judge John J. Sirica and members of a Senate investigating committee-had begun to suspect that there was a larger scheme afoot. At the same time, some of the conspirators began to crack under the pressure of the cover-up. Anonymous whistleblower " Deep Throat " provided key information to Woodward and Bernstein.

A handful of Nixon's aides, including White House counsel John Dean, testified before a grand jury about the president's crimes; they also testified that Nixon had secretly taped every conversation that took place in the Oval Office. If prosecutors could get their hands on those tapes, they would have proof of the president's guilt.

Nixon struggled to protect the tapes during the summer and fall of 1973. His lawyers argued that the president's executive privilege allowed him to keep the tapes to himself, but Judge Sirica, the Senate committee and an independent special prosecutor named Archibald Cox were all determined to obtain them.

The Saturday Night Massacre

When Cox refused to stop demanding the tapes, Nixon ordered that he be fired, leading several Justice Department officials to resign in protest. (These events, which took place on October 20, 1973, are known as the Saturday Night Massacre.) Eventually, Nixon agreed to surrender some-but not all-of the tapes.

Early in 1974, the cover-up and efforts to impede the Watergate investigation began to unravel. On March 1, a grand jury appointed by a new special prosecutor indicted seven of Nixon's former aides on various charges related to the Watergate affair. The jury, unsure if they could indict a sitting president, called Nixon an "unindicted co-conspirator."

In July, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes. While the president dragged his feet, the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, criminal cover-up and several violations of the Constitution.

Nixon Resigns

Finally, on August 5, Nixon released the tapes, which provided undeniable evidence of his complicity in the Watergate crimes. In the face of almost certain impeachment by Congress, Nixon resigned in disgrace on August 8, and left office the following day.

Six weeks later, after Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president, he pardoned Nixon for any crimes he had committed while in office. Some of Nixon's aides were not so lucky: They were convicted of very serious offenses and sent to federal prison. Nixon's Attorney General of the United States John Mitchell served 19 months for his role in the scandal, while Watergate mastermind G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent, served four and a half years. Nixon's Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman spent 19 months in prison while John Ehrlichman spent 18 for attempting to cover up the break-in. Nixon himself never admitted to any criminal wrongdoing, though he did acknowledge using poor judgment.

His abuse of presidential power had a long-lasting effect on American political life, creating an atmosphere of cynicism and distrust. While many Americans had been deeply dismayed by the outcome of the Vietnam War, and saddened by the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and other leaders, Watergate added further disappointment to a national climate already soured by the difficulties and losses of the previous decade.

HISTORY Vault: Nixon: A Presidency Revealed

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The Watergate Scandal - Timeline, Summary & Deep Throat

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A June 1972 break-in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters led to an investigation that revealed multiple abuses of power by the Nixon administration and a vote by the House Judiciary Committee for impeachment.

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HOOVER, Ala. -- A fairly simple, straightforward investigation has turned into a full-on scandal at Ole Miss.

One notice of allegations turned into two. There was a NFL Draft night fiasco featuring a gas mask. Coach Hugh Freeze has been charged with violating the NCAA's coaching responsibility bylaw.

Ask Rick Pitino how that feels. I'll tell you what it means: It doesn't matter if you knew there were strippers entertaining recruits. It means you should have known.

In a roundabout way, that brings us back to what the Ole Miss case has become. When this nasty business about extra benefits hit the fan, the school's self-imposed bowl ban and docking a few scholarships seemed to strike the right note.

If some of the major cases this decade taught us anything, it's that a well-resourced Power Five program can survive pretty much anything the NCAA can hand down.

(See: Penn State, Ohio State and USC, all deserving of preseason top 10 rankings this season in the same decade their programs were supposedly burned to the ground by Big Brother.)

Ole Miss seemed to have done its NCAA homework.

But now it's just sloppy -- on the school's part, on the administration's part, certainly on Freeze's part.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday by a high-powered Arkansas attorney alleges Freeze orchestrated a media campaign to spread falsehoods about former Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt.

That presents a couple of potentially big problems for Ole Miss. When Freeze and other school administrators allegedly made calls to nine (!) journalists, the school's first notice of allegations had yet to be released in January 2016.

As Nutt's attorney Thomas Mars pointed out, there are only two entities that could have released information on it: Ole Miss or the NCAA.

" ... the second possibility doesn't seem very realistic," Mars wrote to an Ole Miss attorney in a letter obtained by CBS Sports.

That indicates a possible violation of the NCAA's cooperative principle, which you can read here. It is in place to prevent "media leaks and discussion of confidential case matters."

To summarize: Freeze is alleged to have overseen a program that paid out prospects $20,000 in cash and extra benefits. He and Ole Miss are charged with lack of institutional control. Because he should have known any or all of this was going on, Freeze could be suspended up to a full season.

And now, before the details of the case were even public in January 2016, the lawsuit says Ole Miss was allegedly spinning their case to the media to help save its recruiting class.

"Integrity," Freeze said at one point Thursday during the SEC Media Days, "is not always doing the right thing, but it is when something is done that is right, you own it."

Ole Miss has yet to own much of anything in the major violation category, especially when it even threatens to touch Freeze.

The lawsuit complicates things significantly. Mars does not mess around. For 11 years, he served as Wal-Mart's general counsel. He once was director of the Arkansas State Police. His bio says Mars has won verdicts or settlements worth approximately $50 million.

One source described him as one of the most powerful attorneys in Arkansas.

"Houston Nutt is the best client I've had in 30 years [practicing law]," Mars told CBS Sports.

The NCAA suddenly shouldn't be Ole Miss' biggest worry. Unless the lawsuit is somehow dropped, it can end one of two ways: Ole Miss settling or the case going to trial.

I can guarantee you Ole Miss doesn't want depositions under oath made public that would lay out everything. For better or worse, the NCAA process is secret.

See what I mean by Ole Miss being sloppy? The NCAA case is expected to be decided during the season, likely in November. A trial open to the public would be later -- and messier.

The suit says Ole Miss contended the investigation had "little, if anything, to do" with the current staff and instead was focused on Nutt.

Nutt's name does not appear in either notice of allegations. However, four of the original 13 allegations were supposed to have taken place during Nutt's time at Ole Miss (2008-11).

Freeze is mentioned in several allegations of major violations. The nine journalists all wrote essentially the same thing: The initial notice of allegations was mostly on Nutt.

While saying he couldn't comment on the case Thursday, Freeze then did in an offhand way seemingly throwing Nutt under the bus.

" ... it's the lot we have inherited and that we have caused, in some cases," he said.

Inherited?

The doubling down on Freeze convinced me long ago that he is safe as far as his bosses are concerned. His credibility -- integrity, you might call it -- stems from being one of three humans walking the earth who have beaten Nick Saban twice in a row. (Steve Spurrier and Les Miles are the others. Neither is coaching.)

Ole Miss isn't going to throw that away. Freeze remains the program's second-winningest coach since 1911, the best since the legendary Johnny Vaught stepped down in 1973.

You should begin to see what's at stake here -- the lifeblood of everything in this league -- recruiting.

Without it, Freeze wouldn't have landed a top 10 class in 2013 that immediately came under suspicion. Without it, how that class was landed wouldn't have been questioned by coaches inside and outside the SEC.

Do not miss the timing of the lawsuit filing. It came the day before Ole Miss' appearance at the SEC Media Days where Freeze and his players would be exposed to questions.

CBS Sports' Barrett Sallee was the only writer, to my knowledge, to get Freeze alone here on Thursday.

Meanwhile, back in January 2016, prominent media members (allegedly) took calls from Freeze and/or other Ole Miss officials trying to spin their way prior to National Signing Day.

Recruiting is why Freeze and the Ole Miss administration would allegedly go to such lengths.

It's why coaches put on their best suits and trek here every year to show off their players and programs.

Except for one notable exception, all of them looked anything but sloppy this week.

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How Ole Miss' sloppiness turned a straightforward investigation into a scandal

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HOOVER, Ala. -- A fairly simple, straightforward investigation has turned into a full-on scandal at Ole Miss. One notice of allegations turned into two. There was a NFL Draft night fiasco featuring a gas mask. Coach Hugh Freeze has been charged with violating the NCAA's coaching responsibility bylaw.

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Im working on the topic the the Deflate gate because i want to know if the patriots actually were deflating the footballs

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I am working on the topic of the Watergate scandal because i don't really know what exactly happened so then i can help other people understand what happened

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I'm working on the topic of the ole miss scandal because i want to find out are college players are payed to join their colleges so that  i can help others understand that this is a big problem