SEC commissioner Greg Sankey wasted no time firing a shot across the bow at Dabo Swinney and Clemson on Wednesday at SEC Media Days in Tampa, making sure his message was heard loud and clear across college football.

Sankey found himself in the hot seat, fielding questions about Swinney’s public call-out ofcoach Pete Golding and GM Austin Thomas after what Swinney rightfully called blatant tampering in the Luke Ferrelli transfer saga earlier this year.

“We all live in a glass house,” Sankey when asked for his thoughts on where things stood with the NCAA since Swinney of tampering.

“We. All. Live in a glass house”

Greg Sankey weighs in on Dabo Swinney’s calling out of Pete Golding and Ole Miss pic.twitter.com/rcrps6fbO5

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“I respect that frustrations boil over from time to time, but the environment we’re in — representatives, NIL representatives, agents making phone calls — we’re in a very different environment, which puts us in the glass house, and so we all ought to be careful about throwing stones, including me,” Sankey said.

Let’s be real: Sankey didn’t exactly let Ole Miss off the hook after Swinney laid out the facts, but it sure didn’t sound like much more than a gentle tap on the wrist, either.

Sankey even tried to shift some of the blame away from the coaches, putting part of the responsibility on the players themselves.

Let’s not forget what happened back in January when Ole Miss managed to pull Ferrelli away after he’d already committed to Clemson out of the portal. Swinney spelled it out: Ferrelli was enrolled in classes, attending team meetings, and had his housing and car set up in Clemson before Ole Miss ever picked up the phone.

“The young person involved has a responsibility,” Sankey said. “I think that’s what’s lost, that someone who says, ‘yeah, go represent me, stir up a bunch of business in November.’ Somebody is authorizing that. And there has to be accountability there, too.

“It shouldn’t just all be on an institution. I don’t think we’re there yet, which is a bit frustrating,” Sankey added. “Conceptually, we all ought to exercise a little bit of care before we point fingers.”

Sankey admitted tampering is alive and well in college football, but he stopped short of calling for real consequences. Instead, he floated the idea of what most would call a slap on the wrist for first-time offenders.

“Fundamentally, we don’t want coaches calling kids at a different school and saying, ‘jump in the portal,’ or setting up deals with representatives so you go in the portal at 6 p.m. on a Friday and at 8 a.m., you’ve got a new place and a scholarship,” Sankey said. “That means tampering is taking place. Those things should be defined.

“When issues occur, I don’t think stronger penalties are the answer right away,” he added. “I think more oversight and accountability (is needed). And it may be a lesser penalty. It may just be a warning. It may be what’s perceived as a slap on the wrist, but do something in an orderly fashion and a timely fashion. Then, if it happens again involving the same individuals, that penalty should be elevated.”

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