With the amount of money we are talking about in P4/5 football, that is not surprising IMO. Sarkisian makes $11M just in salary, with another close to $2M in bonus potential. Simmons’ NIL valuation is ~ $2.5M, the highest among college football defensive players.
Beyond benching Simmons, which I don’t think will happen (see winning and salary/incentive comments above), Texas could hit Simmons in his wallet when they dole out the revenue sharing $ at the end of the year. Various sources estimate Simmons likely received somewhere approaching $1M last year from the Texas revenue sharing pool.
Simmons’ NIL brand contracts might also have behavioral clauses, so he could lose those. And lastly, should Simmons stay on the path to be drafted in the NFL, there are definitely teams where his ‘celebration’ yesterday will hurt his chances/position in the draft.
If I were part of Simmons’ team I would immediately release a better apology than the ridiculous one he made yesterday, send him to media training, and start an image rehabilitation program.
Simmons got bailed out yesterday by Desmon Stephens and his idiotic celebrations, smiling, dabbing and preening after putting Donte Moore in the hospital with a cheap shot to the head as he was sliding and defenseless. The American public’s inability to focus on more than one thing at a time saves Simmons because the USC - Oregon game was after the Texas - Tennessee game.
I remember back in the day, Miami players would get drawn and quartered for a truly small fraction of the celebrations that routinely go on today. I remember a few years back when Ole Miss’ Elijah Moore pretended to be a male dog peeing on a post after a touch down. That was the jump-the-shark moment for me.
An unfortunate combination of testosterone, age development of the prefrontal cortex, and, in some cases, where the IQ falls in range and upbringing.
You’re worried the NCAA enforcing obscenity celebrations as a central regulator would be too subjective but trust the teams to police themselves with star players in an era in which there are literally hundreds of millions of dollars on the line each and every season? Not sure I agree with that take.
I guess the NCAA is officially an organization with no teeth. If we can’t have them deal with these things, I’m not sure there’s a reason for it at all anymore … at least insofar as we’re talking about P4 college football.
We have a long tradition of division 1 football play in our family. My beautiful and awesome grandson is going to break the chain. His father and I spend time at the golf course with him in hopes he makes that his passion. I can’t imagine his mother is going to ever sign off on him putting on a helmet. As much as I love the sport, I can’t say I blame her.
PS: watching college football final (the one with Joey Galloway), and they’re replaying, over and over, the Simmons celebration. They’re basically having fun with it and not really taking the kid to task for his actions.
These are football players and coaches, not politicians. They are not esteemed academics. Some can’t put together a sentence (Brett Bielema).
I wouldn’t expect sportsmanship lessons or anything else. These are pro players. They’re going to do what they can and no coach is going to penalize himself by shutting off the path to victory. The highest profile at the top football schools are there to play as opposed to to attending class or learning life lessons.
And I agree about Desmon Stephens. Let me be clear that I am in NO WAY defending Simmons, but that to me is such a difference to even be speaking about these things in the same breath. What Simmons did was stupid and embarrassing. What Stephens did was reckless and dangerous. I don’t think the infractions are the same or that the penalties should be the same, though, personally, i’d love to see Sark sit Collins for a quarter or a half against OU.
The link above about Sark only focused on a tiny part of what he said. I don’t have a problem with him calling it a dumb football play, because it was and could’ve cost them the game. Instead of a 4 and 26, now they had a first and 10. So not only was it gross and stupid, that kind of BS has real-world impacts on the game. That’s the kind of thing NFL coaches will see as a reason not to draft him, but, make no mistake, he’s still a first-rounder. He’s young and immature, as many of these players are.
What no one is talking about, which surprises me, is the Raleek Brown celebration after he scored. That also was stupid and nasty. And coming after the Simmons penalty? So stupid. I hope Sark hasn’t lost control of this team.
I will say this, however. UT always has had a “soft” reputation. I think these players know that, and that’s the reason for some of this showboating. Personally, I’m of the “act like you’ve been there before” camp. Let your play do the talking, and Simmons’ five sacks yesterday did more than enough talking.
It’s my perception there has been more unsportsmanlike behavior by the Longhorns on and off the field recently. Sark and the UT President need to set serious consequences if this is ever going to stop.
And not to pick on the Longhorns, they are not the only ones. But it seems there’s been a noticeable increase in this behavior the past year or so.
ETA: I just noticed your last paragraph addition. You may be right. Interesting insight.
100%. Score the TD. Hand the ball to the ref. Celebrate on the sidelines. Or make the sack like it is no big deal. That is the most cold blooded thing you can do.
Not sure Sark would be the one to do so since he has demonstrated continual examples lacking professionalism himself - far beyond the blowing off of Holly Rowe the other week.
I didn’t follow that closely but was under the impression it was just bad timing as he was rushing to celebrate a big win. Sark certainly could have handled it more gracefully. I noticed he gave Holly Rowe two interviews yesterday.
The problem was there had been technical difficulties at half when trying to interview him. He waited and finally gave up. Julie Rutledge, the other sideline reporter, came on and apologized during the second half of the game for the ESPN issues and taking so long. So when there was some kind of issue at the end of the game as well, Sark did what he was contractually obligated to do and split. I think it was blown way out of proportion. If your team is down by 20 points at the half how long are you going to delay getting to the locker room while the network figures out its issues? It really was not a big deal. People love Holly Rowe, including me. She clearly felt some kind of way about it as evidenced by her eye roll.
10,000??? Source please. I am aware of a few students the past couple years who were criminally negligent and paid the price. (And let’s be clear, even one would be too many.) No one at UGA downplayed their actions, that I’m aware of. And obviously they were immediately off the team and subject to legal repercussions.
However, I don’t see this as an apples to apples comparison of game day behavior on and off the field, which is what my comment addressed. And I was genuinely curious about my perception of it increasing. I was not picking on anyone’s team and I appreciate Y’s comments about why it may be happening.
The hit was criminal and cruel, designed to cripple. Vicious shoulder to the head of a surrendering, sliding quarterback. Horrible and should result in a multi-game suspension.
My point is a couple of unsportsmanlike behaviors on the field is nothing compared to a coach who has multiple (not a few) kids driving recklessley and putting peoples lives in danger.
IMO, that’s a real rogue program which doesnt have institutional controls.
My interest this week is current game day events since it’s the 2026 football thread.
Your off-topic comments directed at me make me feel singled-out and attacked unfairly and take away my enjoyment from participating in this thread. I’m out. Enjoy the season.
