Stansbury Says Sidney/Bailey Decisions Will Be His Alone

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With Mississippi State preparing for a game against St. Mary’s in Las Vegas tomorrow, Andy Katz reported today that “sources close to the team” have told ESPN that Rick Stansbury is “working off an investigation that (Elgin) Bailey was the instigator” in last week’s much-publicized fight with teammate Renardo Sidney.

Supposedly, Bailey did not “move his feet in the aisle while Sidney was trying to walk past him.”  (Well, that’s something to fight about.)  According to Katz’ sources, if Sidney had started the fight — and not Bailey — then Sidney would have already been dismissed from the team.

As for his eventual discipline, Stansbury said: “It’s going to be my decision.  Our athletic department can be a part of it, and Scott (Stricklin) and I have talked about it.  But the one thing I’ve always done in my program is to make the right decisions about my program.  This was an embarrassing situation for everybody.”

One would have to question at this point if bringing the controversial Sidney onto his team was, in fact, the right decision for his program.

“I don’t like the perception, but anybody who knows our program over the past 13 years knows we’ve had no problems,” Stansbury said.  “In my 13 years, there hasn’t been a public embarrassment.  This isn’t the norm.  It just happened.  I won’t understand why it happened.  It just happened.  And if people don’t do right in our program, then we’ll hold them accountable.”

And when might his discipline be handed down?

“When I get back from this trip, (the decision) will be pretty quick.”