Steve Sarkisian is not happy with the current state of college football. The ever expanding College Football Playoff, the selection process, free player movement, bidding wars and forgotten academics have the Texas Longhorns coach publicly proclaiming his dissatisfaction. Sark even hints at the SEC breaking away from the NCAA.
In an expansive interview with Matt Hayes of USA TODAY Sports, Sark documented how college football has become the “Wild Wild West.’ But it’s to the NIL or the portal he’s talking about. He’s talking about rules enforcement.
The NCAA used to have a lot more power. Teams used to be put on probation, banned from the postseason, docked scholarships and even, in SMU’s case, made to shut down its football program for a year, colloquially called the “Death Penalty.”
But lawsuits and court cases have weakened the organization to a point there is basically no enforement of rules. Players now sue for eligibility. They use the courts to get a favorable judge, like Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby plans if the NCAA punishes him for gambling violations.
“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. We all signed up to be part of the NCAA, and then we all allegedly make the rules. 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.”
Sark says college football is 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.
“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.”
Sarkisian, and others in the SEC, think a smaller member pool who all sign up for the same rules would be a better situation.
“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.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve the idea of the SEC breaking away. As soon as Texas and Oklahoma joined the league, and the Big Ten swallowed up Pac-12 refugees USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, there was talk the two “super conferences” might break away. Most assumed together, but the two leagues rarely agree.
Soon after the Donald Trump’s presidential roundtable on college football, which didn’t produce many actionable solutions, SEC commissioner was asked about breaking away.
“How do we work with colleagues to solve problems? Can we do that collectively?” Sankey said. “If there’s a point at which we cannot do so, I think the conversation that informs the question that you ask, ‘Is there something you’d do alone?’ I think that that starts to generate more and more interest.”
Of course, the SEC boss emphasizes that isn’t what the league actually wants and they will work with its partners to improve the NCAA. But if a majority of the SEC stakeholders want to break away, its possible, if not probable.
“I’ve acknowledged there are those who have said we should go our own way,” Sankey said on the show. “I don’t think that’s the right decision. We have relationships and responsibilities within Division I.”
The SEC has become the most powerful conference in college athletics with unmatched influence in college football and television revenue. The league has become the center of every major conversation about the future of the sport. That power has only fueled speculation the SEC (and Big Ten) could eventually break away and form their own governing structure separate from the NCAA.
Any movement by the SEC is still years away. But the rumblings are growing louder. Now they’re even being stated openly on the Forty Acres.
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Sarkisian hints at Texas Longhorns football, SEC leaving NCAA
Reporting by Trey Luerssen, Longhorns Wire / Longhorns Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
