Lane Kiffin compares SEC schedule to NFL, bashes other conferences

Ole Miss and head coach Lane Kiffin got a thrilling SEC win last weekend, beating Arkansas. There’s no rest for the weary, though, as Ole Miss now turns its attention to a tough non-conference test against Tulane before getting back to that relentless SEC slate with LSU coming to Oxford.

Lane Kiffin has seen how those long and difficult SEC schedules can hurt teams, like it did Kirby Smart and Georgia at points last year. That’s why he thinks so highly of teams that can make their way through that slate. After all, as he explained during the weekly SEC Teleconference, playing an SEC schedule is like playing an NFL schedule.

“Kirby and I have talked about that a lot,” Lane Kiffin said. “I think that is really something that’s not given much credit to and understanding, and then in the rankings — it’s like the NFL. Every week. Different than the NFL, you go 10-6, 9-7, you make the playoffs, okay, good job. That’s not what happens in this conference. As you go to nine games, it’s going to be more of that.”

Lane Kiffin has experience in the NFL and in other conferences. So, he does have some experience to pull from here. That’s why it’s interesting that he seemingly went on to bash some other conferences for having lighter schedules, which makes them look better to a selection committee when putting teams in the College Football Playoff.

“There’s a coach in this conference that came from a different conference and said, ‘Man, now I get it. It’s totally different. Where I was in that conference before that’s considered really good, but we only really had to mentally get cranked up three times a year and deal with intense road games, also on top of that.’ So, it’s totally different. And my issue when it comes to evaluation going into a Playoff system from a committee,” Kiffin said.

“But it’s like you don’t understand that and how different it is, especially as you go to nine games. You’re going to have some really good 8-4 teams, like really good. That could be four one possession games. [Those teams] are going to be better, but you’re not gonna know that because you have teams in these conferences that go 10-2. So, whatever, that’s down the road, but that’s coming. As you add another conference game, there’s even more of that, but yes.”

There had been some growing criticism around the sport from fans of other conferences that the SEC only played eight conference games. Now, that’s set to change as the SEC moves to a nine-game conference schedule, with one of their non-conference games designated as a Power Four opponent. That should, again, only crank of the strength of everyone’s schedules. It also, as Kiffin pointed out, will leave more opportunities for letdown performances.

“So, Kirby talked about it. It is a grind. I’m not complaining about the work part. It’s a grind on the kids to do that and be able to get up,” Kiffin said. “And it’s why you see, in my opinion, these games happen where they’re not really up, and here’s an upset where they were favored by 16, 17. How can that happen? Well, it happens because they’ve got a bunch of these.”

For now, Lane Kiffin doesn’t have time to worry about the schedule. Instead, his focus needs to be on Tulane, a team capable of beating Ole Miss if the Rebels let that relentless schedule wear them down.