Lane Kiffin blames college football calendar for timing of LSU hire: 'It sucked for a lot of people'

The current college football calendar dictates the new one-time transfer portal window be made before bowl season is wrapped up. In turn, Lane Kiffin and other have had to make their next coaching decision earlier than they would have otherwise.

In several cases, such as Jon Sumrall at Tulane/Florida and Eric Morris at North Texas/Oklahoma State, they’re staying on to coach their teams through the postseason. Kiffin wasn’t given that luxury at Ole Miss, and called out college football’s scheduling issues during his introductory press conference at LSU on Monday.

“Obviously, the last 48 hours, in a lot of ways, sucked,” Kiffin said. “The only way I can describe it, (is that) it sucked for a lot of people. There was no way to possibly do it, in my opinion, any better than we did (from a) timing standpoint, because it’s a bad scheduling system of how it’s set up.

“Eventually, hopefully it gets like the NFL where can’t do that in the season and don’t have to make those decisions. But in that, it was very important and very critical. Verge (Ausberry) and his team had a really, really good (NIL) plan, and even talked to some donors that are part of that plan here, to see exactly; How does that work? And there’s a great plan here.”

It remains to be seen whether college football will adjust its schedule to help this issue. Coaches are forced to make their decisions for the following season before the current one is finished, which has caused drama across the board at programs gaining and losing these coaches.

What it does to team morale, individual player decisions on their future, staff shakeups amid these changes, and more are all factors to be considered. Kiffin said himself that he wished to coach Ole Miss through the College Football Playoff and finish the season with the team he began it with.

That wasn’t how it worked out. However, his situation opens the potential conversation for college football to move toward a more NFL-based structure that doesn’t allow any of those contract issues to impact anyone until the offseason.

Kiffin will benefit from LSU putting a unique clause in his contract that allows the Tigers to pay him the bonus Ole Miss would have given him based on the Rebels’ success in the College Football Playoff. While his former team competes in the CFP, Kiffin will be attempting to build another playoff roster in Baton Rouge in the hopes of being in the same position this time next year.