The NCAA has a mess on its hands.
But then again, considering the history of the organization, having messy hands is nothing new as long as those hands can count the money rolling in.
Tampering in college sports, especially football, is rampant. It’s so widespread and known that ESPN published a story about the tampering already going on weeks before the end of the regular season last November.
Everyone knows it’s going on, including the NCAA and every program is likely guilty of tampering in some shape, form or fashion. That’s why the Big Ten had requested that ongoing tampering cases be suspended. The Big 12 and ACC opposed the idea. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, meanwhile, urged the NCAA two months ago to pursue tampering cases.
Unsurprisingly, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger’s reporting last week, the NCAA has no plans to pause any cases and will continue to enforce its tampering rules.
Who knows what Big Ten school(s) are in danger of being in the NCAA’s crosshairs for tampering. We do know Ole Miss is in the crosshairs thanks to Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.
Back in January, Swinney publicly accused Pete Golding and Ole Miss of tampering in January. Clemson filed a complaint with the NCAA over linebacker Luke Ferrelli, a transfer from Cal.
What the fallout from that exactly is remains to be seen. But one media personality things Golding may be suspended for a game or two.
OutKick reporter Trey Wallace explained his reasoning for that prediction on That SEC Podcast’s with Mike Bratton.
“Ole Miss’ defense is, ‘Well, look what we have on other schools. Look what we have on Lane Kiffin and LSU,’” Wallace said. “‘OK, cool. You want to come after us, your next stop better be Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Or your next stop should be [pick your] college town.’
“All of them were tampering in some form or fashion during that whole debacle in Oxford. It’s not really a defense of, ‘Hey, we didn’t do this. It’s [if] you’re coming after us, you better be prepared to go after 10 other schools the same way because we’ve got the evidence that proves the other schools did that.’ That’s what I think gets [the NCAA] to back off.
“The NCAA has enough to be like, ‘Pete, my man, you’re going to have to be off the sidelines for a game or two. Do I think that they’ll do it? Let’s see how tough the NCAA is in this. But they have enough evidence.”
Asked @TreyWallace if Pete Golding will face penalties after tampering against Clemson:
"Ole Miss' defense is, 'Well, look at what we have on other schools.
'Look what we have on Lane Kiffin & LSU.'
"Your next stop must be Baton Rouge."
Full chat: https://t.co/6v7pRMZJWd pic.twitter.com/YrSzW2dztg
— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) March 15, 2026
And that’s the problem the NCAA is facing. Tampering is so rampant that if the NCAA does decide to punish teams with head coach suspensions, the first weeks of the upcoming season will see mostly interim coaches on the sidelines.
That may even include Swinney at Clemson and, as Wallace pointed, that would make January’s press conference one of the biggest hypocritical things ever.
“Like I said at the time when Dabo did it, you better not be throwing massive stones out of that glass house. I think the reason why Clemson felt comfortable to go after Ole Miss is because Clemson isn’t involved in the transfer portal a lot. They don’t have a lot of the tampering and whatnot going on inside their program.
“What’d they take, three players from the portal?”
At some point the NCAA has to decide whether it actually wants to police tampering or just pretend it can. Because if it follows through on every case, it will be handing out suspensions across half the sport. And if it backs off, it proves what everyone already suspects, that the NCAA is powerless, all-talk, no-bite organization.
