Lane Kiffin says the state of football is a ‘disaster’

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin didn’t expect questions about the impact of the transfer portal and name, image and image relationships at SEC media days on Thursday. Instead, he addressed both topics in his opening remarks, calling the current state of college football a “disaster.”

Kiffin prefaced his comments by saying he’s glad players can get paid, but said the unintended consequence of the NIL is a “pay-for-play” system where players follow the money and the teams with the deepest pockets get the best gifts.

With the transfer portal, Kiffin said “free agency” now exists — except that, unlike in professional sports, every college player can enter free agency twice a year during the spring and winter transfer windows.

Kiffin said, “We have professional sports,” except without the salary cap or luxury tax, and the resulting myriad of “problems” for coaches.

“And I’m not complaining about that because of course we’re taking advantage of free agency,” he added.

Ole Miss has been one of the most active teams in the country on the transfer portal. At quarterback, the Rebs return former USC transfer Jaxson Dart, who threw for nearly 2,000 yards last season, and add a pair of transfers in former All-Big 12 pick Spencer Sanders from Oklahoma State and former five-star prospect Walker Howard.

Between transfers and high school recruits, Kiffin picked up 40 new scholarship players this summer.

“That’s the world we live in,” Kiffin said. “But at the same time, I don’t think it’s really good for college football. These massive rosters every year are really not in the best interest of college football.

“It’s kind of your union about the situation that all the coaches are dealing with across the country — a really bad system that’s not getting better and now it’s getting worse. Because again, now we just look at the recruiting rankings and you see they usually follow this donor base and what the schools decide to give the most money, but we do with everything else, which is for the players. That has to be fixed because there’s no system around it.”

However, Kiffin and his staff have navigated the system well, earning a three-game winning streak while going 23-13 in three seasons in Oxford.

Ole Miss, who will open the season at home against Mercer on the 2nd. September, returns one of the nation’s top running backs in sophomore Quinshon Judkins, who led the SEC with 1,567 rushing yards last season.