In the NIL era, the recruitment wars have become more intense, and many coaches are feeling the impact. And that’s not limited to traditional high school recruitment. The real issues facing head coaches arise when their players are tampered with by rival programs.

“I don’t want to be worried about my fourth wide receiver getting talked to by another school’s coach in pregame warm-ups,” Steve Sarkisian said during his July 22 appearance on the Stampede podcast. “That is, ‘Hey, come transfer here at the end of the season; you’re not playing there anyway.’ I don’t like those things. If you do those things, there’s got to be consequences for breaking rules. Right now, we can’t govern our own rules. That’s the kind of most frustrating part of kind of where we’re at.”

The NCAA clearly prohibits coaches and staff from contacting players who have already enrolled with a program. However, many programs deliberately ignore this rule to benefit themselves. Programs use third-party “collectives,” sports agents, or high school connections to gauge a player’s interest.

A previous example Sarkisian cited was the ‘ghost transfer,’ which was eradicated through strict penalties. It was a loophole where players unenrolled from a school and enrolled in another as a walk-on outside the official transfer portal window. The governing body implemented strict rules to address this issue. The head coach would be suspended for six games. The university would face a 10% penalty of its football budget. Because penalties targeted coaches and universities, not athletes, tampering dropped sharply.

Until last year, programs used spring games to scout players on other teams’ rosters. Since these games were televised on national networks, they became a major source for poaching or tampering. At the time, the NCAA had a spring transfer portal window in mid-April. To combat this kind of tampering, the governing body eliminated the spring portal window.

Now, we have only one portal window in January. But that hasn’t stopped instances of tampering. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney accused Ole Miss of tampering with Luke Ferrelli while he was attending classes at the Tigers. The NCAA is currently investigating the case.

Sarkisian has sounded this alarm before. In November 2025, speculation arose that Sarkisian would move to an NFL head coaching job. He confirmed many rival programs tried to poach Texas players.

“We live in a world right now of instant gratification,” Sarkisian said to the Austin American-Statesman. “We’ve got players on our roster right now who are highly recruited, outstanding football players who are in the developmental stage of their career. The family back home, or the agent representing him. He is just saying, ‘Billy’s not playing; I need to find him a home where they’re going to play him.'”

Sarkisian said rival programs make unrealistic financial promises to flip players. And while various forms of tampering have been called out, it’s difficult for programs to monitor it when it occurs during the season. Often, players who are not getting game time get targeted by the persuasion of first-team spots if they hit the portal at the end of the regular season. For powerhouses like Texas, that usually means losing on crucial depth pieces.