AUSTIN, TEXAS – AUGUST 31: Head coach Steve Sarkisian of the Texas Longhorns reacts after the game against the Colorado State Rams at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on August 31, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
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The man who holds the keys to arguably the most well-resourced program in college football clearly has an axe to grind about the lawlessness of the sport.
Steve Sarkisian, the current head football coach of the Texas Longhorns, gave a revealing interview this week to USA Today’s Matt Hayes, in which he expressed the view that college football has severely veered out of control.
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“We all signed up to be part of the NCAA, and then we all allegedly make the rules,” Sarkisian said to Hayes. “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.”
The Longhorns’ coach has had plenty to say during the offseason about other programs’ habit of line-stepping rules that have seemingly evaporated. Sarkisian’s callouts include a particular rival school not upholding academic standards for incoming recruits:
“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours. 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,” Sarkisian said to USA Today. “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.”
Steve Sarkisian and Arch Manning have big plans for the Texas Longhorns ahead of their 2026 campaign.
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He also called out the poaching of players by other teams during the season, critiques of the College Football Playoff committee’s team selections, the weight of the AP and Coaches Polls, and the constant state of change within the sport.
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“I get to Texas in 2021, and the entire world changes,” Sarkisian says to Hayes. “Conference realignment — of which we were a major player — NIL, free player movement, 12-team playoff, revenue sharing, and now we’re talking about a 24-team playoff. No one takes a breath to reset. It’s all reactionary.”
Sarkisian’s callouts aren’t necessarily unfair, as the sport’s backend operations are nearly unrecognizable compared with those of a generation ago. The coach’s desire for more regulation appears noble, although the acknowledgement that a departure from the NCAA and a creation of a new organization feels foreboding.
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“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.”
The Longhorns, with the largest athletic budget in college sports, generate nearly $300 million annually, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). A January 2026 WSJ report noted that the Longhorns became the first college football team to be valued at over $2 billion. Not to be outdone on the recruiting trail, the Longhorns flaunt a parade of Lamborghinis during high-profile recruiting visits to campus, and plush internships “with Tesla or now Google or Apple or oil and gas,” per Sarkisian, in an interview with Marshawn Lynch back in April.
To call the Longhorns’ resources exorbitant would be an understatement, yet Sarkisian continues to clamor for a level playing field. At a time when the coach feels the sport is lawless, Sarkisian is an oil baron with an excess of riches, yearning for more sheriffs and deputies so his riches can be protected and he can lord over those around him.
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Sarkisian shouldn’t apologize for securing arguably the best job in all of college football. He’s a proven quarterback developer, has an earned reputation for running a highly proficient offense and is as good a recruiter as any in the sport.
But the game is the game, and those who are not blessed with the resources on the 40 Acres will find ways to keep up. The SEC, the most notorious conference historically for a willingness to skirt the rules, is the conference Texas—and the Oklahoma Sooners—so feverishly signed up. The Longhorns and Sooners, who were charter members of the Southwest Conference, were major players in the quintessential wild west of college football in the 1980s.
Head coach Steve Sarkisian of the Texas Longhorns talks with Head coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes during warmups ahead of their school’s 2025 clash in Columbus.
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If Sarkisian wants a level playing field, maybe starting with student-athletes forming a union should be at the top of the list. Add to that the potential for student-athletes to become employees and the formation of a salary cap for student-athletes with revenue sharing, which should be top of mind as well.
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Sarkisian’s stance on more controls isn’t a bad idea, but his perspective on pushing for it, given the advantages one can only have in Austin (and maybe at Ohio State in Columbus), comes across as whiny. Add to that the fact that one could argue the Longhorns have slightly underachieved, given their roster construction and resources, and the complaints sound petulant.
Because what happens if Sarkisian gets his wish, controls are established, and the Longhorns still fall short? The whining and petulance won’t come from the head coach but from the constituents he answers to that make all those resources come to life.