Texas' Steve Sarkisian rips Ole Miss academic standards - ESPN

Some SEC football coaches aren't waiting for kickoff to get after each other.

One day after LSU coach Lane Kiffin's controversial comments about Ole Miss were publicized, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian told USA Today that «all you have to do is take basket weaving, and you can get an Ole Miss degree.»

First-year Florida coach Jon Sumrall, a former assistant at Ole Miss, added to the fray later Tuesday afternoon with a jab at Sarkisian on X: «Grateful to coach at a top 10 public university that also offers advanced basket weaving!»

A University of Texas athletic department spokesperson told ESPN on Tuesday that Sarkisian's comments were part of a larger conversation about tampering and he was stressing the importance of academics at Texas.

«At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player's academic credit hours,» Sarkisian told USA Today. «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.»

Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The flurry of jabs comes just weeks before the SEC's annual spring meetings, which will be held May 26-28 at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa in Miramar Beach, Florida.

In a four-hour interview with Vanity Fair that was published Monday, Kiffin, who was the head coach at Ole Miss before taking the same job at LSU, said some top recruits would tell him they weren't interested in coming to Oxford, Mississippi.

"[They would say], 'Hey, Coach, we really like you, but my grandparents aren't letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,'" Kiffin told the magazine. «That