Texas Longhorns’ Steve Sarkisian Calls Out Need for Change in College Football
As the world of college athletics awaits the final decision on the proposed house settlement in the House vs. NCAA lawsuit, many are still voicing their frustrations with the current systems in place. From NIL to the transfer portal, there are still a lot of issues that have remained unsolved, and with the house settlement case continuing to be prolonged, college athletics is seemingly left in limbo.
Like many, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian is well aware of the problems facing college football, and just like his other prominent counterparts, he has voiced his displeasure with the current setup.
During a press conference in April, Sarkisian was asked about how he manages the quarterback situation during spring practice while the transfer portal window is open. This prompted him to think back on a recent example of how the current system is unfair to both the players and schools, pointing to the situation former Texas quarterback Maalik Murphy had to go through before he transferred to Duke.
“We try to communicate on a high level of where they’re at, where they can improve, what we envision their journey looking like short-term and long-term, but, again, two years ago we were in the College Football Playoff,” Sarkisian said. “Maalik [Murphy] was our backup quarterback. He felt like he had to go into the portal to solidify a position because if he didn’t go in somebody else was going to take that spot. That’s a terrible position for a young man to be in.”
Murphy, the former four-star quarterback prospect out of Gardena, California, spent two years at Texas and was the backup to Quinn Ewers in 2023. That was before he entered the transfer portal during the December window that season despite the Longhorns being in the midst of a College Football Playoff run, where he then ended up at Duke.
“The fact that he’s worked since January with his team, competing to try and win a national championshipm. He started, I believe, two games for us that fall,” Sarkisian said. “Then, here we are going to play a semifinal game in the Sugar Bowl against Washington. And he has to leave his team or he might lose a spot on another team. Like, none of that makes sense to me. It didn’t make sense to me then, it doesn’t make sense to me now, but that’s what we created.”
Sarkisian made it clear that this wasn’t Murphy’s fault. Rather, the now Oregon State quarterback was having to do what’s best for his career, which at the time meant entering the portal and leaving the Longhorns ahead of their College Football Playoff run.
“If we’re going to do anything to help the players and the student-athletes and help the programs, we’ve got to look at this model and see where we can improve it and do it in a way where there’s some teeth involved,” Sarkisian said. “Because if not there’s just gonna be another lawsuit and the whole thing’s going to fall apart again and we’re gonna go back to square one.”
