Steve Sarkisian isn't happy with college football. The College Football Playoff and the selection process, free player movement, NIL bidding wars and forgotten academics. After five years of the "new" college football, Sark is tired of it.
“I try my best to not get consumed with how bad it is,” Sarkisian said. ‘It just wears you out.”
In an expansive interview with USA TODAY Sports senior national college football writer Matt Hayes, Sarkisian took aim at the "Wild West" culture that has invaded the sports he loves.
“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.”
Sarkisian's situation at Texas isn't what he is complaining about. Sark has assembled a national title calibre team, possibly his best ever team. He has all of the financial support he could want, some of the best facilities in the nation and a good support structure, from Athletic Director Chris Del Conte to the assistant trainers.
But Sark can't stand by and watch the systematic breakdown of amateur sports any longer without saying something.
“It’s like we’ve forgotten about academics, yet less than 5% of these guys will play in the NFL,” Sarkisian said.
Sark lists a lot of things currently wrong with college football. Big programs, Texas included, now pay millions for their rosters and at many schools, the boosters have become de facto owners. Students, who now can command "real money," are setting up bidding wars. Some are even judge shopping to avoid consequences for gambling. If you want to survive, you better do the same.
“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours,” Sarkisian told USA TODAY Sports. “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.”
Talk of expanding the college football playoffs is one of the most hotly debated topics in college football. Most discuss whether it waters the CFP down or if the power conferences benefit too much. But Sark is more concerned about the process used by the selection committee.
“The committee doesn’t have the bandwidth to watch that many games,” Sarkisian said. “They see the media and coaches polls, and they copy them. You’ve got a 12-team playoff, and that means there are at least 30 teams that impact it. Now all of a sudden, you want to go to 24? Now the polls become an even greater factor, because now you’re asking (the committee) to watch 40 teams a week — if not 50. Everyone talks about NIL. But my biggest gripe is the selection committee,” Sarkisian said. “There’s no transparency on what exactly the committee is doing. We have to figure that out.”
The Texas coach says he would go back to a four-team playoff.
“I’d go back to a four-team playoff, and have your own conference playoff to get the four teams if you want more inventory for your television partners,” Sarkisian said. “We have to think outside the box. Just adding teams and going to 24, that’s a very spastic view, thinking that’s going to solve the problem. Forever in college athletics, we don’t think about the unintended consequences of decisions we make. It’s all knee-jerk reactions. Look where it has gotten us.”
The lack of rules enforcement was another target of Sarkisian's. College football seems to be trying to copy the NFL with one big difference, the rules aren’t enforceable because enforcement leads to legal wrangling, which leads to millions in legal fees and lawsuits and traditional college football practices being torn down in the courts.
“There’s a reason in the NFL, when you get caught tampering, you get drilled. You lose draft picks,” Sarkisian said. "You don’t practice the right way, you lose practice days, coaches get fined. There are a lot of things in place to protect their rules and guardrails. Right now in college football, there’s no fear. People do whatever they want.”
If the NCAA and/or federal government can't get ahold of the sport, Sark suggests the SEC might just break away and do their own thing. Not just for the possible revenue an SEC "super league" could potentially create, but a smaller group would make rules enforcement more realistic.
“There’s lot of sentiment for breaking away and having your own rules. That’s realistic,” Sarkisian said. “You’re going to sign up or you don't, but if you do, here’s our rules. Here’s how this thing is going to work.”
See: Steve Sarkisian goes scorched-earth on college football’s wild West culture | Exclusive
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian blasts lawlessness of college football
