Booger McFarland offers solution on Lane Kiffin coaching in College Football Playoff if he chooses LSU: 'Ask the players'

Everyone in college football is seemingly waiting on Lane Kiffin to make a decision. He appears to be choosing between staying with the Ole Miss Rebels or taking over the LSU Tigers. If Kiffin makes the move to Baton Rouge, even more questions begin to pop up.

One of those will be, is Kiffin going to coach Ole Miss through a potential SEC Championship and College Football Playoff run? The answer for ESPN’s Booger McFarland is an easy one: yes.

“I think you should always be able to finish what you start,” McFarland said at halftime of LSU-Oklahoma. “Even from the LSU side, if he does decide to come to LSU, I don’t think LSU would have a problem allowing Lane to coach Ole Miss because, again, finishing what you started. That’s the sticking point.”

McFarland also looked at this from the Ole Miss perspective. If he were running the program, the players would get to make the final decision. A piece of advice for athletic director Keith Carter as he potentially navigates a difficult situation.

“Do the right thing,” McFarland said. “Ask the players, ‘Hey, what would you like to do?’ … If he does decide to go, ask the players if you’re the AD.”

Studio host Kevin Negandhi then asked if there would be a conflict of interest for Ole Miss in all of this. Specifically, when it comes to the players, some you imagine Kiffin will want to take with him to LSU. And in today’s world of the NCAA transfer portal, it’s quite easy to make moves.

Which is why McFarland is not too worried about tampering if Kiffin does get to stay for the College Football Playoff. In his eyes, if a player is going to follow Kiffin, they will do it regardless of his coaching status.

“These players get the opportunity to make that move on their own anyway in January,” McFarland said. “So, regardless if Lane can speak to them — even if they ban Lane Kiffin and say ‘Okay, you’re leaving, you can’t coach.’ You mean to tell me he can’t text the players and when the portal opens in January, if those players wanted to come, they can still come.”

Nobody truly knows when Kiffin will announce his next move. He will be quite invested in Saturday night’s Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn, with a win for the home Tigers meaning Ole Miss heads to Atlanta.