$44 million head coach strongly calls out rampant tampering in college football

Tampering has always been a concern for college football programs of all kinds, and the new arrangement around the transfer portal has only intensified the problem.

Auburn head coach Alex Golesh believes there is essentially no difference in recruiting and the tampering around the process between his new home in the SEC and his old Group of Five program.

Portal era has made it worse

“[Tampering has] been going on for a really long time. This portal era amplified it in every imaginable way,” Golesh told reporters.

“There eventually needs to be guardrails on this thing. I think we all want to know the rules in which you can operate in... The truth is, right now, there aren’t any, so you operate ethnically with what you feel like right now.”

"Is it right to call a kid that's on somebody else's roster to go get him? It's not. I think, in a lot of ways, what goes around comes around... I'm a strong believer in the football gods will find you at some point." - Auburn HC Alex Golesh on tampering in college football pic.twitter.com/s82kVi5f9D
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) January 29, 2026

Golesh believes whatever flimsily-enforced tampering regulations there are in college football, it’s still just plain wrong.

And eventually, they’ll pay the piper.

“Is it right to call a kid that’s on somebody else’s roster to go get them? It’s not,” he said.

“I think in a lot of ways, what goes around comes around. I’m a strong believer in the football gods finding you at some point. Generally, they’ll find you at the end of a game or on fourth-and-1. You’ve got to do things the right way.”

New talk around tampering

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney started the ball rolling recently when he revealed that Ole Miss coach Pete Golding apparently had conversations with linebacker Luke Ferrelli, who transferred from the Tigers to the Rebels this cycle.

Then there was the case around Darian Mensah, the $10 million quarterback who reached a settlement with Duke after jumping ship after initially declaring his intent to stay with the Blue Devils.

Washington quarterback Demond Williams signed with the program for the 2026 season before suddenly trying to get out of that deal and play elsewhere.

Back in October, the NCAA changed its transfer portal rules after a school changes coaches, ultimately shortening the transfer decision window to 15 days after a coaching move and starting five days after a new coach is hired.

Do it the right way, Golesh says

“The pressure to win is great and people feel it in different ways,” Golesh said.

“I’m not here to judge anybody else’s decisions on how they operate, but you’d love to have some guardrails within the system.”

He added: “I think maybe as I establish myself within this conference, I’ll have more vocal opinions, but I’m just the new guy on the block trying to build a program here at Auburn and do it the right way.”

More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | Schedule | Teams

Follow College Football HQ: Bookmark | Rankings | Picks