Steve Sarkisian Says He Doesn't Talk About NIL With Recruits After Lamborghini Recruiting Video

Has Steve Sarkisian ever watched any of the recruiting videos his athletic department produces?

The Texas Longhorns in the past few years have become one of college football's best recruiting destinations. Texas offers a great location in a desirable city, a legendary, historic stadium, a passionate fanbase, beautiful uniforms, compete in the deepest conference in the country, have annual playoff expectations, and routinely play on national television. Oh, and they have a massive NIL budget too. 

And as college football fans have learned in the NIL era, that's what matters most. But Sarkisian, speaking at SEC Media Days this week, apparently wants to pretend otherwise. 

With an estimated $40+ million NIL budget for the 2025-2026 season, the Longhorns are using their resources to their advantage. But Sarkisian said that he doesn't talk about NIL with recruits until the very end of the process.

"We only have so much money to go around," Sarkisian said. "We don't talk about NIL, or revenue sharing, or publicity rights until the very end, and that may hurt us on some kids. But if the kid is coming to Texas for that reason, we don't want him anyway. You know, we want kids that want to be at the University of Texas because of the school, the coaches, the team, the culture, all those things that go into it. And, oh, by the way, you can get publicity rights or revenue shares, so on and so forth. If you're coming for the other reason, he's probably going to be the guy in 18 months that's back in the portal going somewhere else where they're going to offer him more money. Because I can't offer every player the most money that he might get offered from another school. It just doesn't work like that."

Sure, right. Has he not see the video from a Texas recruiting visit of Lamborghini's parked out front?

AUSTIN, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 24: Head coach Steve Sarkisian of the Texas Longhorns walks to the stadium before the game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on November 24, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)

Texas Doesn't Worry About NIL Recruiting, Apparently

Well, Sark, don't know how to say this, but whoever is organizing the recruiting visits for the Texas Longhorns football program, which apparently is not the head coach of the Texas Longhorns, has not gotten the message. Cause one of college football's most infamous recruiting videos is from the UT campus, when players showed up to see a bevy of Lamborghini's parked out front.

Wonder what the message could be there? Could it be that players choosing UT over other schools could get paid enough to buy their own Lamborghini? Nah. It must be about the culture of the program, the value of the education and the opportunity to attend classes. That must be it.

It's odd that Sarkisian chose to take this path, when it's obvious to everyone that NIL is one of the most important, if not the most important, factors for high schoolers or transfers choosing where to play. And who can blame them? It's the same for employees looking for new jobs; salary might not be the only consideration, but it's a big one. 

Texas has returned to being a football powerhouse because of the other obvious qualities it already has…and it also has a lot of money to offer recruits. Sarkisian though, wants to act as though it's all because of him and the "culture" he's built. Not the Lamborghinis his highly paid players are driving. Sure.