Lane Kiffin Delivers Economic State of the Union at SEC Media Days: Ole Miss head coach talks NIL, Pay-for-Play, and Transfer Portal
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — During Lane Kiffin’s time at the podium Thursday, SEC Media Days turned into an economic summit.
Name, Image and Likeness, the transfer portal, and revenue sharing were the dominant topics instead of the usual players, schemes and expectations.
“First off, I’ve always said that I think it’s phenomenal that players get a chance to get paid, which is great,” Kiffin said. “I do think, which I’ve stood up here and said before when it first happened, that there’s going to be some major issues and we’re creating free agency with the portal.”
One of those issues is Kiffin does not believe NIL is being used as it was intended.
“And with NIL, you’ve got a lot of pay-for-play going on and that is what it is.” Kiffin said.
“Those two things combining, there’s not a system in place. I don’t think there’s any other sports at any level that are like this, that really, you every year, can opt into free agency. Really, twice a year. I mean, I was just thinking on the plane ride over here. What if you had that in other sports? Tom Brady, A’Jai Wilson, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, what if every year those guys can opt to free agency, twice a year, really and they have no long-term contracts? Basically everybody is not even on a one-month contract because they can leave in two windows.”
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin
Some might think it odd for Kiffin, known as the ‘Portal King,’ to have anything negative to say about the portal since he continues to have some of the highest-rated classes of transfers in the country. But he explains his reasoning.
“It’s created a lot of issues and roster changes. I’m not complaining about it because we take advantage of free agency, but at the same time, I don’t think that’s really good for college football. These massive overhauls of rosters every year, really, are not in the best interest of college football.“
Coach Kiffin
Kiffin was also asked about the Grove Collective at Ole Miss and any potential plans to begin a revenue-sharing program for student-athletes. The fourth-year Rebels’ coach sees positive and negative aspects of the initiative.
“I think like almost everything on this subject, there’s good and bad to everything that comes in,” Kiffin said.
“I think that revenue sharing on the surface would be great because players are getting paid and it’s coming from the money they are helping make the university. But, again, I kind of try to think things through, and the other things that happen when you do something, just like when everybody is like, we have this NIL, it’s great, and this portal, it’s great. Whoa. And I’m not saying I was the only one saying it. Whoa, this is a disaster coming because you just legalized cheating and you just told donors they can pay the players is what you did.”
Lane Kiffin
Kiffin was also asked about NIL issues potentially causing dissension in the locker room.
More from Lane Kiffin on locker room issues regarding NIL discrepancies. pic.twitter.com/MxTUz0Bq8d
— The Rebel Walk (@TheRebelWalk) July 20, 2023
Yet, all that notwithstanding, Kiffin is a football coach and one of his biggest talents is the ability to adapt to new situations. He has shown he can adapt to those on the field, and now he gets to prove he can work with the ones off the field, as well.
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
