Few things are certain in life, like death and taxes.
Another certainty is tampering in football.
It’s not just limited to college football, either. The NFL has had rampant tampering ever since 1993 when free agency was added to the offseason. There were teams and players agreeing to deals one minute after the start of free agency, which clearly indicates the two sides were talking when they shouldn’t have been.
The NFL tried to curtail this by establishing a legal tampering period where teams and players can talk but are not supposed to agree to any deals. Spoiler alert: it didn’t change much.
NFL teams don’t often get in trouble for illegal tampering, unless its blatant, like Miami owner Stephen Ross being fined $1.5 million and his team losing draft picks for talking with Tom Brady and Sean Payton while they were with other teams.
Now, college football is experiencing the joys of tampering. ESPN published an article back in November saying that tampering was already happening.
But the problem isn’t tampering itself (because it’ll never go away). The problems are much bigger and they’re not going to be fixed anytime soon.
In a sport where winning is what matters most, coaches will do whatever it takes to win. Sometimes that means stepping into a grey area and those unwilling to do so usually end up unemployed.
That puts what Ole Miss is doing into perspective.
Some more official reporting has come out today that former Cal linebacker Luke Ferrelli has re-entered the transfer portal after signing a scholarship offer (but not a revenue share or NIL contract, which is an important distinction) with Clemson and attending classes. The likely destination for Ferrelli is Ole Miss.
Ex-Cal star linebacker Luke Ferrelli, who signed with Clemson earlier this portal cycle, is expected to re-enter the transfer portal, sources tell @CBSSports.
Ole Miss is expected to be a team to watch with him, per sources. Posted 91 tackles as a redshirt freshman this season. pic.twitter.com/2Q1QbYNTE2
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 21, 2026
It’s very unlikely Ferrelli woke up one day last week and decided all of this on his own. Ole Miss snapping up Ferrelli from Clemson is what’s happening to the Rebels and LSU.
Devin Harper and Princewil Umanmielen signed deals to return to Ole Miss in 2026, but are now headed to LSU. Again, it’s not very likely they woke up one morning and suddenly decided to make a switch on their own.
It’s a situation where you want your team to take the high road, be the good guy, do all the right things and still win games. But if you’re the only one standing with clean hands and everyone’s is dirty, how many games are you really winning?
It’s a vicious cycle and a tough position to be in. A lot of people are being forced into making tough decisions because of a system that isn’t broken. Rather it’s got parts in wrong places.
Good luck making those repairs.
