Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney made headlines earlier this year when he called out Ole Miss for what Swinney called “blatant” tampering with Cal transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli. During his press conference on Jan. 23, Swinney criticized Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding for allegedly luring Ferrelli into the transfer portal and influencing his flip from the Tigers to the Rebels.

Swinney claims that Golding texted Ferrelli directly while he was sitting in class after having already enrolled at Clemson. Ferrelli had already signed his financial aid agreement and was taking part in football activities before ultimately re-entering the portal and committing to the Rebels on Jan. 22.

According to a report from ESPN, the NCAA opened an investigation of the Ole Miss football program the same day that Swinney accused Golding of tampering with Ferrelli. ESPN cited sources saying the NCAA investigation is still “in the early stages.”

Six months after Swinney called out Golding and Ole Miss, people are still talking about it. In fact, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was asked directly about it this week at SEC Media Days.

Sankey weighed in on the Swinney-Golding tampering saga, responding that everyone in college football lives in a “glass house” and warning coaches like Swinney to be careful about “throwing stones.”

“We all live in a glass house,” Sankey said. “I’m going to put: We. All. Live in a glass house. And I respect that frustrations boil over from time to time, but the environment we’re in [with] representatives, NIL representatives, agents making phone calls — we’re in a very different environment, which puts us in the glass house. So, we all have to be careful about throwing stones, including me.”

Sankey then offered his view of where college sports are with tampering, arguing that the NCAA convening committees to levy “stronger penalties” isn’t the answer to solve tampering.

“You’re not just going to stop this stuff,” Sankey said. “The NCAA model — and I don’t mean this as an NCAA leadership criticism – the NCAA model is you get a committee together and they say we need stronger penalties. I don’t think that’s true.”

Instead, Sankey proposes clearly defining modern tampering behaviors and instituting “timely oversight.” He suggested implementing incremental consequences, as opposed to waiting months or years for a major infraction ruling.

“I think we need to define what it is we want, which fundamentally is, we don’t want coaches calling kids at a different school saying, ‘Jump in the portal.’ Or setting up deals with representatives so you go in the portal at 6 p.m. on a Friday at 8 a.m. you’ve got a new place and a scholarship. That means tampering has taken place,” Sankey said.

“Those things should be defined. And then when issues occur, I don’t think stronger penalties are the answer right away. I think more timely oversight and accountability. And it may be a lesser penalty. It may be just a warning. It may be what is perceived as a slap on the wrist. But do something in an orderly fashion, in a timely fashion. And then if it happens again involving the same individuals, that penalty should be elevated.”

Sankey also stated that “accountability” for tampering must extend to student-athletes and their representatives.

 “Then lastly, the young person involved has a responsibility here,” Sankey said. “I think that’s what’s lost. … There has to be accountability there, too. It shouldn’t just all be on a institution. And I don’t think we’re there yet, which is a bit frustrating. I’ve described this previously. … Conceptually, I think we all ought to exercise a little bit of care before we point fingers. That’s one, and two, we should define the endgame that we want and then work towards that with a level of accountability that’s progressive but involves the individual — both the coach and the student-athlete who are a part of this tampering environment.”

Swinney recently reiterated that tampering is “rampant” and needs congressional intervention.

“We are probably going to need some congressional help from that,” Swinney said during the ACC Kickoff about any tampering rules falling in place. “There has to be some type of rule in place. There needs to be consequences or just say ‘the heck with it’ and do not worry about it and let it be the wild, wild west.”

“There are these other leagues that have rules. There are consequences – suspensions, fines, firings or whatever. There are contracts and things like that,” Swinney added. “There are lots of things. To this point, it is rampant because in college sports nobody really fears or worries about those consequences.”