Lane Kiffin explains why he is blunt about problems with NIL
At SEC Media Days, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin made headlines for his continued critiques of NIL. There, he went in depth on why he’s so against the system that he feels is bad for the sport.
During an appearance on Marty & McGee, Kiffin explained why he feels he needs to be so blunt in his opinions of NIL.
“It’s not like I’m the president, giving the State of the Union,” Lane Kiffin joked. “President of NIL and [transfer] portal problems, but I do that because you guys tell me afterward how appreciative you are or like I see fans or players, parents or recruits, and they’re like, ‘Wow. Thank you. We didn’t really know that’s what’s really happening because no other coach talks like that.'”
Kiffin explained that he thinks it’s good for the players because they can use their mobility and NIL to benefit themselves. Still, he thinks it’s a bad system to try and manage.
“One good part about it being broken, and as I said up there too, is the players. I’ve told them it’s a great time for them to capitalize on this. Like I said up there, you can capitalize three times. You can capitalize out of high school, you can capitalize on your one-time transfer. Basically getting a new contract somewhere, and then as a grad transfer. So, it’s really good for them, but it’s really a bad system of trying to manage things.”
This prompted Marty Smith to ask Lane Kiffin how it has forced him to evolve.
“I think, kind of accepting that you’re going to not have phenomenal culture. Doesn’t mean I don’t work on it, but I think I have to realize like hey, it just is what it is. Like, one, we don’t have many kids who are dying to be here. They didn’t grow up wanting to go to Ole Miss. These transfer kids are going to a place that fits them best at that time. It’s not about the school and you don’t really have them on their third, fourth, fifth year with you to where they know how we do it, they know expectations, the culture, the other players. Unfortunately, now it’s like plug and play.”
Lane Kiffin sees these changes as making the college game more like the NFL. In turn, he feels this takes some joy from the game.
“And when they used to ask me, ‘Okay, coaching in the NFL, coaching in college, what do you like?’ And I was like, ‘I really like the college because it’s like the players care so much about where they’re at in college.’ Lot in that locker room, like that’s where they wanted to play for when they grew up, and the passionate fanbase and everything, and in the NFL it’s business. So, it just makes for a very different dynamic and we’re now moved toward that to where it is really business and I would say the joy is not the same.”
Lane Kiffin reacted to pushback for his NIL comments
Not everyone has agreed with Lane Kiffin’s comments about NIL and he’s received a lot of pushback for them. However, that doesn’t surprise Kiffin.
“I mean I’m OK. It is what it is. People are going to, when you sit up here and talk for a while, they’re going to take little parts of it and cut down the paragraph or the sentence and then it plays different than you’re saying,” Kiffin said.
“To be clear, like I mentioned just earlier, it’s a really bad system, like I said. I didn’t say all of college football is broke. But I’m talking specifically about two things: portal and NIL and them coming together at the same time together basically a couple years ago and it not being thought out of the issues that come around that.”