Op-Ed: Lane Kiffin Shows the Mess That Is College Football

His coaching move sets an awful precedent sure to be repeated, writes a critic
Posted Dec 1, 2025 7:01 AM CST
Op-Ed: Lane Kiffin Shows the Mess of College Football
Mississippi head coach Lane Kiffin, watches his team warm up prior to the start of an NCAA college football game against Florida, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in Oxford, Miss.   (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

The move college football was bracing for happened: Lane Kiffin, one of the biggest coaches in the game, left Ole Miss for rival LSU. What's remarkable is that Kiffin made the decision with Ole Miss on the brink of making its very first College Football Playoff, and now the team will play without the coach that led them there. As a result of all this, "the wildly popular, yet terminally broken sport of college football is never going to be the same," writes Stewart Mandel at the Athletic. "Fans are now going to expect their school to fire a lame-duck coach as early as possible in the season to get a head start on hiring the next one," he writes. "And coaches who really want another job now have cover to leave their team early, even if that team has an opportunity to win the national championship."

Mandel digs into the particular rules, or lack of them, that led to what he sees as a monumentally "screwed-up" situation. College football may need a rule to bar teams from poaching coaches until the season is over, as the NFL has. "Or, they could institute a portal window of sorts for coaches to take new jobs, say from Feb. 1 to March 1, after the season but before spring practice." Maybe a cap on guaranteed money in coaches' contracts? But Mandel isn't holding his breath for any changes. "In the annals of college athletics hypocrisy, this particular milestone qualifies as an all-timer," he writes, predicting that Kiffin "won't be the last." Read the full piece.

Read These Next
Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X