Steve Sarkisian has made his position plain, and now he has to live with it.
While Lane Kiffin, Brent Venables, Shane Beamer and other SEC coaches have pushed to bring former professional players into college rosters, the Texas head coach has stayed on the conference’s side of the line. That stance has put him squarely in sync with the SEC’s ruling against roster additions from the NFL and other pro leagues, even as the issue has turned into a full-blown legal mess.
The controversy really took off after the SEC said teams would not be allowed to roster former professional athletes. LSU, tied to Kiffin in the source’s telling of how this began, has kept pressing to add those players anyway. The fight has now spilled into court, with a Louisiana judge granting a preliminary injunction allowing the players to return to college and the SEC filing a federal lawsuit against LSU.
Through all of that, Texas has kept its distance. And Sarkisian has been explicit about why.
"These players on all of our rosters, not just [Texas's], have been working for nine months for this moment on Saturday," Sarkisian said. "The fact that somebody out there is gonna take a player off of an NFL roster and tell somebody who's been doing it for nine months, 'Go kick rocks?'
That doesn't sit well with me. I think that's wrong.
That, morally, is wrong."
That quote leaves little wiggle room, and Sarkisian followed it up by backing the SEC’s decision directly.
"I think our Presidents, ADs, and Chancellors got it right, and we'll support it, and we'll fall in line," Sarkisian said of the conference’s move to bar professional players from returning to the NCAA.
The SEC vote was lopsided: 15 of the 16 members approved the addendum, with LSU’s representative abstaining. The policy covers former pros from leagues including the NFL, NBA and WNBA.
Even as the eligibility status of these players has bounced around, Sarkisian has kept repeating the same view. He has also done so while coaches such as Venables and Beamer, whose school representatives voted with the conference, have moved to roster former NFL players.
For Texas, the path seems clear for now. Sarkisian has taken a firm public stand, and if he keeps it, the Longhorns will keep avoiding the scramble that has engulfed the rest of the SEC.
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