Steve Sarkisian rips Ole Miss for transfer portal practices, low academic standards

Steve Sarkisian took quite the shot at Ole Miss for their transfer portal practices and lower academic standards compared to Texas. In fact, it seems like the head coach wanted to go scorched earth!

In a conversation with USA Today, Sarkisian opened up about myriad issues in college football. That included criticism of the CFP committee being able to keep up with every single game in order to determine a 24-team playoff.

But it was his comment regarding Ole Miss that was particularly eye-opening. Especially since the Rebels are an SEC foe.

“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 criticized a lot when it came to college athletics, not just Ole Miss. He threw out an alarming stat, the way he sees it.

“It’s like we’ve forgotten about academics, yet less than 5% of these guys will play in the NFL,” Sarkisian said. But that wasn’t all.

Remember when Dabo Swinney claimed Ole Miss coaches recruited Tigers linebacker Luke Ferrelli while he was in class, right after he left Cal for Clemson? Sarkisian does and he’s also waiting for an answer, like Swinney.

“Obviously, I think there’s two sides to every story,” Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said of the saga. “I’m not going to sit up here and use the podium as a grandstand and all that. That’s why there is enforcement. That’s why we have a compliance office, that they do all that. So, the bottom line, the recruitment of Luke, he came on an official visit prior to the Fiesta Bowl, and I told him, ‘Hey, I want you to be our green-dot Mike, but right now we got a green-dot Mike. And that spot’s not going to be available until we have one available.’

“So, I want you. He wants to be here. I said, ‘But right now there ain’t a spot available. So, if that spot becomes available, it’s yours.’ It’s a kid that wanted to be here, that we wanted to be here, that at the end of it, came open, and he’s here, and we’re happy to have him.”

That’s why Sarkisian took a swing at Ole Miss for their transfer portal practices. Simply put, there are no more rules enforced by the NCAA, or anyone.

“We all signed up to be part of the NCAA, and then we all allegedly make the rules,” Sarkisian said. “Everyone knows the rules, right? Then we go to our attorney general and say we don’t like that rule, let’s just sue. Right now, no one is afraid of the consequences.”