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The transfer portal has become college football’s Wild West, and new Auburn coach Alex Golesh isn’t mincing words about the tampering issues plaguing the sport.
“(Tampering’s) been going on for a really long time, this portal era amplified it in every imaginable way,” Golesh said. “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 ethically with what you feel like is right.”
The first-year Tigers coach didn’t hold back when discussing the ethics of poaching players directly from other programs.
“Is it right to call a kid that’s on somebody else’s roster to go get them? It’s not. 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.”
Despite his stance on tampering, Golesh has assembled an impressive transfer haul at Auburn. His class ranks 13th nationally according to 247Sports with 39 signees — including 13 players who followed him from South Florida.
The biggest prize? USF quarterback Byrum Brown.
Brown — rated the ninth-best QB in the portal — brings dual-threat credentials after throwing for 3,158 yards and 28 touchdowns while adding 1,008 yards and 14 scores on the ground last season. His addition helps offset Auburn’s quarterback exodus, as three signal-callers departed the Plains via transfer.
The tampering issue has exploded into public view recently with several high-profile incidents. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney publicly called out Ole Miss and assistant coach Pete Golding for allegedly contacting Tigers linebacker Luke Ferrelli. Meanwhile, Duke and former quarterback Darian Mensah reached a settlement after the university tried blocking his portal entry before he signed with Miami.
Then there’s the Demond Williams saga — the Washington QB signed for 2026 before attempting to wriggle out of his executed agreement to land elsewhere.
Rules enforcement supposedly remains a top NCAA priority.
“The pressure to win is great and people feel it in different ways,” Golesh explained. “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. 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.”
Auburn’s transfer portal experience hasn’t been all inbound traffic. The Tigers lost several top playmakers, including talented receivers Eric Singleton Jr. (Florida), Cam Coleman (Texas), and Perry Thompson (Minnesota).
NCAA’s Attempt at Portal Control
In October, the NCAA altered its transfer rules following coaching changes. The second modification focused on transfer exceptions, shortening the decision window to just 15 days after a coaching change and beginning five days after a new coach is hired or announced.
These tweaks haven’t eliminated the backdoor communications that continue driving the transfer market.
Former Auburn coach Hugh Freeze previously stated that tampering would be impossible to eliminate unless the NCAA returned to its previous eligibility rules — making players sit out a year after transferring.
The current system still contains massive loopholes. There are no rules preventing family members, NIL representatives, or agents from contacting coaching staffs on a player’s behalf — creating perfect back-channels to gauge interest before officially entering the portal.
For now, coaches like Golesh are left navigating these murky waters while trying to maintain their own ethical standards in a landscape where the boundaries keep shifting.
