Lane Kiffin says transfer portal, NIL have made college football 'a disaster'
Lane Kiffin did not hold back his thoughts about the transfer portal and name, image and likeness deals, calling the current state of college football "a disaster."
Entering his fourth season at Ole Miss, the Rebels head coach addressed what he believes are issues in college football during his opening statement at the SEC media days Thursday. While he said he thinks it's great that players are able to earn compensation through NIL deals, it's created an unregulated free agency where athletes can "opt into free agency" twice a year, unlike professional sports.
"You've got a lot of pay-for-play going on and it is what it is," Kiffin said. "Those two things combined, there just is not a system in place and I don't think there's any other sports at any level that are like this.
"It's just created a lot of issues," he added.
When it comes to NIL, Kiffin said the issue is there's no salary cap or luxury tax, meaning "basically whatever programs have the most aggressive boosters, with the most money, are going to get the players." Kiffin said he is "not complaining" about it because he said his team takes advantage of the system, but thinks overall it isn't good for the sport.
"I don't think that's really good for college football. These massive overhauls of rosters every year, really is not in the best interest of college football," Kiffin said. "We'll deal with it like we do with everything else, but somehow it's got to get fixed because there's no system around it."
The Rebels have 25 transfers coming in next season − tied for fourth most in FBS − including former Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders, former LSU quarterback Walker Howard and former Texas-San Antonio wide receiver Zakhari Franklin. Ole Miss is also ranked fifth in best transfer portal class, according to 247sports. The team's returning starting quarterback, Jaxson Dart, was a transfer from Southern California.
Ole Miss will begin its season at home Aug. 2 against Mercer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin says college football is currently 'a disaster'
