Lane Kiffin
- Role(s) as quoted
- LSU head coach
- Ole Miss head coach
- Person type
- Coaches
- Entries
- 8 (Jul 20, 2023 to Oct 12, 2026)
- Topics
- Transfer portal (7) Governance & legislation (3) Scheduling & calendar (2) Pay, NIL & revenue sharing (1) Employment & unions (1) Playoff & bowls (1) Structure: super league & divisions (1)
In the Ideas index
All entries (oldest first)
“Somehow it's got to get fixed because there's no system around it.”
In his SEC Media Days opening statement, Kiffin called the state of the sport 'a disaster.' He said NIL had become pay-for-play and the portal was free agency twice a year with no salary cap, and that huge roster overhauls aren't good for college football.
“I've always said, when asked, shorten the [transfer portal] windows, so at least we know what your roster is and not so many chances for players.”
Kiffin said he used to favor making players employees so teams could sign multi-year contracts, but now thinks employment would create more problems than it solves. His consistent fix is shorter transfer windows.
“Can you imagine in the NBA or NFL, free agency were to start in the playoffs? I mean, it would never happen.”
On an SEC coaches' teleconference, Kiffin said the portal windows are timed before the season is over, which invites tampering, and called the whole system reactive rather than thought out.
“The season's not over yet, and there's a free-agency window open.”
On a Gator Bowl coaches' Zoom call, Kiffin called the calendar 'a dumb system' because the portal opens while teams are still playing, and compared it to NFL free agency opening before the playoffs.
No verbatim quote recorded for this entry; summary of the source only.
Endorsed Nick Saban as a commissioner of college football while criticizing the CFP for leaving out three-loss SEC teams in favor of SMU and Indiana.
“That would be terrible. I can't imagine a worse decision to be made.”
On his Thursday coaches show, blasted a proposed SEC rule that would force athletes transferring between SEC schools to sit out a year, calling it a disastrous self-own ahead of a presidents' meeting on the idea.
“When a kid goes to transfer from the SEC, he can't go in the SEC. Well, he's going to go to other conferences. So we would just be handing away a lot of players every year and limiting them that they can't go to the other 15 SEC schools that they've grown up fans of, or maybe in the same area where they're from, and they'd be forced to go to other conferences and play against us and play for other conferences.”
Argued an SEC-only sit-out for intraconference transfers would push talent to other leagues rather than keep players in the SEC.
“I mean, I guess, is that tampering if I talk about another player in college? I don't know anymore. Is there even really tampering anymore? Speaking of one of those two schools. And does it matter if you tamper? Is there actually a penalty?”
At his Monday press conference, questioned whether tampering rules still mean anything after Ole Miss faced no meaningful penalty in the Luke Ferrelli portal case.
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