The Texas coach blasts bloated committees, weak NCAA power and pushes for one commissioner to fix college football.
Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian is supposed to be talking bowl prep this week, but instead, he lit into the entire structure of college football.
Coming off a 9-3 regular season in his fifth year at Texas and gearing up for a Cheez-It Citrus Bowl showdown with Michigan, Sarkisian used his latest press conference to aim higher than game plans and depth charts.
He went straight at the sport's power structure.
Sarkisian started with what everyone can agree on: business is booming. The SEC is a ratings monster, stadiums are packed and college football has never been more popular.
But, as he put it, "under the hood, we've got a broken system." From his seat on the 40 Acres, the problem isn't the product on Saturdays. It is the way the sport is being run the rest of the week.
He pointed directly at the committee culture that now seems to govern everything in college football.
There is a committee for the College Football Playoff selection and its criteria. There is another for the calendar. There are groups for rules, NIL, and scheduling.
Sarkisian's frustration is that all of these bodies can make recommendations, but no one seems to own enforcement or long-term direction.
In theory, that is where an overarching commissioner would come in.
Sarkisian even nodded to the growing chorus calling for a "commissioner of college football," but he added a crucial caveat ... a commissioner without real power is useless. Rules without teeth, in his view, are just talking points.
That led him to the NCAA, the organization that is supposed to be the sport's governing backbone. Sarkisian didn't mince words, saying the NCAA currently has "no teeth" because anytime it tries to enforce a rule, a lawsuit follows.
His point was that schools voluntarily joined this structure, and then immediately fight its authority when it becomes inconvenient.
For Sarkisian, the path forward is about consolidation and conviction. One true commissioner, one governing body, clear rules, real enforcement and everyone rowing in the same direction.
Until that happens, he believes college football will keep stumbling from issue to issue, even as its popularity soars.
While those big-picture questions hang over the sport, Texas still has business to handle.
Sarkisian, Arch Manning and a talented Longhorns roster will try to put a bow on a 9-3 season against Michigan on New Year's Eve in the Citrus Bowl, even as their head coach keeps pushing for a better version of the game they are trying to win.