Fair or unfair, Ole Miss has taken it on the chin this week.
First, ex-Rebels coach Lane Kiffin—now at LSU—implicitly told Chris Smith of Vanity Fair Monday that Oxford, Miss.’s lack of diversity made it more difficult to recruit there. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the university’s history knows that probably carries some truth—but anyone with a passing knowledge of public relations knows that Kiffin, post-Nov. 2025, is a suboptimal bearer of that message.
That news cycle had barely ended when Texas coach Steve Sarkisian took aim at Ole Miss’s academic standards in a Tuesday afternoon interview with Matt Hayes of USA Today. Amid an interview jammed with familiar riffs on college football fatalism, here’s what Sarkisian had to say.
Steve Sarkisian cited Texas and Ole Miss as an example of “inequitable” academic standards
“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours [when they transfer],” Sarkisian told Hayes. “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.”
Basket weaving! This ancient art form, a byword for an easy college class since time immemorial, is having its good name dragged through the mud by a coach last spotted in the Citrus Bowl. When USC quarterback Matt Leinart was taking ballroom dancing in 2005, he at least did that art form proud by reaching the Rose Bowl and finishing third in the Heisman voting.
As with Kiffin, Sarkisian’s statement probably carries a grain of truth. Texas is No. 30 in the almighty U.S. News & World Report academic rankings, while Ole Miss is No. 169. However, college football is so divorced from the business of higher education—and has been for its entire existence; don’t let anyone tell you differently—that any hand-wringing over academics comes off as disingenuous at best and whiny at worst. Ask another ex-Tigers coach—Brian Kelly—how inveighing against Notre Dame’s academic standards looked once he left South Bend.
On top of that, the reality is that neither university was founded in a vacuum. Texas is 14th in the country in GDP per capita and Mississippi is dead last. Less money overall means less money for education, making the gap Sarkisian acts utterly mystified by wholly explicable. It’s not rocket science, or basket weaving.
Jon Sumrall wants you to know Florida is committed both to high academic standards and basket weaving
“Grateful to coach at a top 10 public university that also offers advanced basket weaving!” Sumrall wrote on social media, becoming the second SEC coach to wade into this all-consuming dialogue—one that didn’t even involve his university.
A spin through Florida’s course catalog reveals no such class. However, Florida’s student union appears to be offering ceramics and sculpting classes this summer. Who knows, Gator fans? You might run into a well-compensated Florida coach or player.
More College Football From Sports Illustrated
Listen to SI’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s College YouTube channel.
Add us as a preferred source on Google