In 2018 when several SEC schools were interested in hiring Hugh Freeze, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent out a memorandum to conference presidents, chancellors and athletic directors to inform them of Freeze's "status with respect to the conference."
Freeze was hired Tuesday as Auburn's head football coach.
While Sankey's 2018 memo, which was obtained by ESPN, did not prohibit schools from hiring Freeze, it was a stern reminder of the conditions and restrictions related to Freeze if an SEC school had chosen to hire him at that point. Per NCAA penalties, Freeze would have faced a suspension for the first two conference games of the 2018 season, but only as a head coach and not as an assistant coach.