Texas football’s Steve Sarkisian apologizes for Ole Miss basket weaving comments

The head coach of the Texas football team is apologizing for comments he made about Ole Miss. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said he didn’t use the right words when he was describing how Ole Miss organizes their academic standards.

“We have a rule at the University of Texas, we can only take 50% towards your degree, no matter how many hours you’ve completed,” Sarkisian said, per On3. “Other schools can take all of your hours that you take. To me, that’s an inequity in our sport. Those are some of the things that we have to work through.

“I could have used macroeconomics. I could have used engineering. It wouldn’t have mattered. The class was irrelevant, and that was a poor choice of words on my part.”

Sarkisian’s apology is in reference to an interview he conducted with USA Today earlier in May. USA Today quoted the head coach talking about how Ole Miss, another SEC school, offers academic credit.

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

Sarkisian was criticized for those comments, after the interview became a national news story.

Both schools have been very successful in football in recent years. Sarkisian took Texas to the College Football Playoff in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, the Longhorns lost in the semi-finals in their final year in the Big 12 Conference.

Then in 2024, Texas returned to the CFP as a member of the SEC. Texas football lost in the semi-finals that season to Ohio State, who won the national championship.

Ole Miss made the CFP in 2025, losing in the semi-finals to Miami (FL).