Lane Kiffin on changes to NIL: SEC coaches are on the same page

Although there have been several instances of public disagreement over NIL between SEC coaches since signing day, according to Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, the leaders across the conference are on the same page.

The pot-stirring coach shared his latest thoughts on the NIL situation after day one of SEC coaches meetings.

“We’re not seeing a lot of details of what came out of there. That (NIL), probably of all the things discussed, almost everybody’s on the same page that something needs to be done, something needs to be done with that, working towards a fair playing ground,” Kiffin said. “Even maybe some of the people that you or I may not think would say that in there but top to bottom, we all said the same things.”

Later in the press conference, the SEC reporters asked Kiffin what measures the coaches have brought up to tamp down on the controversy around NIL.

“I would say a lot of them would prefer to go back to how a lot of it was supposed to work,” Kiffin said. “Players were going to come in, get NIL deals based on their performance and based on marketing. Now, you have players going in and getting money … for where they go to school.”

Part of the solution Kiffin suggested was making players’ NIL contracts public to make the process more transparent.

Kiffin not confident SEC transfer portal deadline will change

While speaking about a proposal to move the SEC deadline for intraconference transfers, Lane Kiffin wasn’t confident the change would pass.

The SEC currently requires all transfers within the conference to be final before Feb. 1 in order to be immediately eligible for that season. The new proposal put forth by Alabama would have the SEC move that deadline to May 1 — lining up with the NCAA transfer portal rules and eliminating the special deadline date.

“Lane Kiffin guesses Alabama’s SEC rule change proposal will not pass that would push the intraconference transfer deadline from Feb 1 to May 1,” stated ALdotcom’s Mike Rodak. “Kiffin: ‘Someone kind of joked, they’re not going to put their spring game on TV’ because they’d be showcasing their players to poach.”

The proposal from Alabama would allow schools in the SEC to recruit transfer players much later into the offseason, after the beginning of spring. Currently, the SEC deadline lines up with national signing day, leaving students who wish to transfer out of their schools with very little time if they wish to remain in the SEC.

Kiffin expressed that he would rather keep the deadline how it is — but added that he wouldn’t speak for any other schools on the issue.

On3’s Austin Brezina contributed to this report.