As you know, Clemson had a very public transfer portal situation earlier this year with former Cal linebacker Luke Ferrelli. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney made headlines when he came out and publicly accused Ole Miss and head coach Pete Golding of tampering with Ferrelli.

On Jan. 23, Swinney blasted Golding and Ole Miss for “blatant” tampering with Ferrelli. Clemson turned over evidence to the NCAA, alleging that Golding contacted and negotiated with Ferrelli while he was already enrolled and attending classes at Clemson.

Ferrelli signed with the Tigers during the portal window, was attending class and taking part in team activities. Swinney says that is when Golding started texting the linebacker directly. With just hours remaining in the portal window, Ferrelli informed Clemson he was heading to Ole Miss.

Steve Sarkisian says that type of situation with Ferrelli wouldn’t happen at Texas. Sarkisian, the Longhorns’ head coach, ripped Ole Miss and took a shot at the Rebels during an interview with USA Today’s Matt Hayes.

While touching on the Ferrelli situation and Swinney’s tampering claims against Ole Miss, Sarkisian criticized Ole Miss’s transfer portal practices and low academic standards, suggesting that transfers just have to “take basket weaving” courses in order to get an Ole Miss degree.

“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours,” Sarkisian said. “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.”

As for the broader landscape of college football and the rampant issue of tampering, especially in today’s age of the transfer portal, Sarkisian says college football rule-breakers have “no fear” of consequences.

“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.”

After Clemson turned Ole Miss into the NCAA for tampering, the NCAA responded very quickly to Clemson’s allegations, with NCAA Vice President of enforcement Jon Duncan saying in a statement on Jan. 23 that the NCAA “will investigate any credible allegations of tampering and expect full cooperation from all involved as is required by NCAA rules. … We will not comment further on any ongoing investigation.”

However, Swinney says there’s still no update on the NCAA investigation.

“Still haven’t heard anything from the NCAA,” Swinney said this week at the ACC Spring Meetings in Amelia Island, Fla.