Ole Miss wants Texas coach Steve Sarkisian punished. LSU’s Lane Kiffin too. Both coaches took shots at the Rebels and behind the scenes the Ole Miss brass is upset. Could the SEC actually fine Sark?
Last week, in a wide-ranging interview with USA TODAY Sports, Sarkisian took a lot of shots at college football. From the college football playoff committee to teams tampering, Sark took aim at elements of his sport he believes need to be fixed.
One area in Sark’s crosshairs was academics.
“It’s like we’ve forgotten about academics, yet less than 5% of these guys will play in the NFL,” Sarkisian said.
The UT football team just set a GPA program record with a 3.36 overall. While talking about Texas’ emphasis on the classroomk, he used the Rebels as an example of a school that doesn’t have the same academic focus as the Longhorns.
“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.”
Kiffin told Vanity Fair that recruits refrained from coming to Ole Miss because their grandparents didn’t want them coming to the town of Oxford due to its racially volatile past. Kiffin believes he didn’t do anything wrong and is defending his comments.
“People don’t read the actual words I used in the article,” Kiffin told USA TODAY Sports. “I said, ‘A parent said.’ That’s not me saying it as my opinion.”
While Ole Miss hasn’t publicly commented on either Sark or Kiffin’s comments, behind the scenes the Rebels are lobbying the SEC to take punitive actions against the pair, according to On3.
The possible sanctions could come later this week, as the SEC heads into its spring meetings in the next few days. Ole Miss has reportedly cited two bylaws Sark and Kiffin may have broken.
Bylaw 10.2.3 says coaches and staff should “avoid making any derogatory statements” about another member institution’s athletics program, facilities or educational opportunities. While bylaw 10.5.2 says coaches and administrators shall “refrain from public criticism of other member institutions, their staffs or players.”
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey must now decide if either comment should be punished and what punishment it might deserve. In the past, Sankey has used both public condemnation and fines for situations like this.
The SEC fined Kiffin $25,000 in 2020 after a social media post the league said violated SEC rules on coach commentary. In 2022, the SEC made a public statement after Alabama coach Nick Saban and Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher fired public shots at each other over recruiting.
Sankey has promised he will police the behavior in the SEC when he feels it is problematic. He might want to punsh harshly as a deterrence against anyone else mentioning another member institution by name.
Will he punish Sarkisian? If so, how?
A public reprimand is the most likely, based on how he handed the Saban-Fisher flare up. But Sankey also has to be careful he doesn’t go too far the other way. Kiffin’s leaving Ole Miss for LSU complicates his comments.
As for Sark? Texas is now by far the biggest brand in the league. Sankey won’t want to make enemies on the Forty Acres. On the other hand, he won’t want to seem like he’s playing favorites.
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Will SEC fine Texas football’s Steve Sarkisian for trashing Ole Miss?
Reporting by Trey Luerssen, Longhorns Wire / Longhorns Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
