Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian was clearly on edge during his press conference earlier this week when he spoke about the transfer portal, Quinn Ewers, and eligibility rules in this day and age of college sports and NIL in the modern landscape.
Steve Sarkisian sees changes in the future for the portal NCAA calendar after Texas football has juggled the pressure from the process for game-planning for Clemson in the late-December 12-team Playoff
The press conference started with Sarkisian butting heads with a reporter who asked him about Ewers' potentially playing the final game of his collegiate career at DKR on Saturday against Clemson in the Playoff.
"No hypotheticals. I'm not doing hypotheticals. I'll answer the question as it pertains to his impact. I'm not going to answer the question with a hypothetical. So, do you want to rephrase the question?"Steve Sarkisian on Quinn Ewers
Sarkisian shared his frustrations with a ruling from the NCAA this week that allows Vanderbilt Commodores super senior quarterback Diego Pavia an additional year of eligibility for the 2025 season.
It was pretty surprising and definitely unusual for Sarkisian to be combative with anyone in the press/media addressing something about the transfer portal or another player. Sarkisian disagreed with the ruling that Pavia was given the extra year of eligibility based on the JUCO rule to play for two years at the junior college level without losing that eligibility.
"I totally disagree with the determination on this. We chose to go to Junior College football. That’s where we wanted to start and play our careers. So, I don’t understand it at all. We’re going to have guys 28-29 years old playing college football. What’s the point? I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. I totally disagree with it."Steve Sarkisian
This ruling from the NCAA to allow JUCO players to have extra eligibility after playing a season or two at the junior college level before coming to the NCAA will have a sizable impact on high school and the Longhorns' patient portal strategy for recruiting transfers. It also kind of muddies the waters on an already confusing and angering process from the NCAA for player eligibility clock rulings for existing players in the FBS.
The direction of the transfer portal and player eligibility with this day and age of the NIL era has created a parallel to college players in the postseason deciding their futures before the Playoff.
Could this 12-team Playoff prep lead to a free agency in college football that organizes the model like the NFL for the pros with OTAs and tryouts before the free agency process begins?
Sarkisian addressed the new NCAA calendar that has the transfer portal cycle overlapping with the 12-team Playoff in the postseason.
"It's a poor system right now that needs to be looked at really hard to find a better mechanism for the players, quite frankly, as much as for the coaches and the teams. I would hate to be on a team that's trying to go compete for a national championship and all the while dealing with phone calls and should I go in the portal?"Steve Sarkisian
Texas coaches don't seem to like the process very much of having to host portal visitors and recruit top transfers at key positions while having to focus on game-planning for the College Football Playoff in the same week. To be fair, I don't know if any coaches are particularly fond of having to juggle Playoff prep and game-planning while rolling out the red carpet for portal visitors simultaneously amid the postseason.
Four out of the 12 teams in the Playoff will be able to focus full-time on the transfer portal after this weekend for the first round of the CFP. Texas will focus more on the transfer portal recruiting strategy as more teams are eliminated from the Playoff in the postseason in late December for this winter window on the transfer market.
I don't know how much we can blame Sarkisian for showing anger at reporters just a few days out from the 12-team Playoff while the Longhorns have had to stay focused on the postseason for the second year in a row in late December.