Stephen A. Smith bashes Steve Sarkisian for basket-weaving comments: 'It was really below the belt, and a classless thing for him to say'

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian created quite the stir earlier this week when he took a shot at Ole Miss‘ education. The topic came up when discussing transfer portal practices, and how ‘some’ programs prioritize athletics over giving their athletes a ‘true education.’

“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours,” Sarkisian said, via USA Today’s Matt Hayes. “You may be a semester from graduating, but you’re going all the way back to 50% if you play here and want a degree. But at Ole Miss, they can take you. All you have to do is take basket weaving, and you can get an Ole Miss degree.”

Sarkisian has been chastised for the remark, which undermined the validity of Ole Miss‘ education. During Thursday’s episode of ‘First Take’, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith went after the Texas head coach for his comments.

“Steve Sarkisian, that was low,” Smith said. “There’s no reason for that, whatsoever. I respect Steve Sarkisian. He’s a damn good coach, although I didn’t think he did a good job last year. Texas is lucky to have him, and this year will be a lot better than last year’s was. Having said that, that’s a low damn blow. Ole Miss didn’t deserve that.

“They were in the College Football Playoff, not Texas. They got a big-time quarterback in [Trinidad] Chambliss, not Texas. We hope Arch Manning will be that way, but at this moment in time, [Ole Miss] has the better quarterback. Coach [Pete] Golding did an outstanding job once Lane Kiffin departed, despite how things were at the time. To sit up there and make a statement like that, ‘basket-weaving’, it’s insulting to the University.”

Stephen A. Smith claims ‘basket-weaving’ comment cannot ‘come out of the mouth of an opposing SEC coach’

Many have interpreted the comment by Sarkisian as ‘sour grapes’, as Ole Miss advanced all the way to the College Football Playoff Semifinals. Texas, however, opened the season with a 3-2 record and missed the Playoff for the first time since 2022.

Luckily for college football fans, Texas and Ole Miss will meet on the gridiron in Austin on Oct. 24. Ole Miss has also been under fire by former head coach Lane Kiffin this week, who claimed that the University’s ‘lack of diversity’ plagued him on the recruiting trail.

“You’re diminishing the quality of the equation they may offer at that institution,” Smith continued. “You’ve got an abundance of people out there that make lives for themselves to prosper and be happy and getting a college degree from there. You can’t go at a University like that. It’s totally wrong, it was unnecessary, and you’ve got to know that if you’re Steve Sarkisian.

“It was really below the belt, and a classless thing for him to say. I don’t give a damn what the University of Texas tries to say to explain away that comment. Under no circumstances is that comment supposed to come out of the mouth of an opposing SEC coach. Any coach, for that matter. You’re a leader of young men. You’ve got to know better than that, Steve Sarkisian. You don’t do that.”