Paul Finebaum: 'Lane Kiffin wants to go to Florida,' but College Football Playoff could stop him

Some people already seem to think they know what is going to happen this offseason with Lane Kiffin. However, with Ole Miss all but certain now to be in the College Football Playoff, Paul Finebaum wonders how much of a choice he’ll end up having.

Finebaum commented on the latest regarding Kiffin’s candidacy, namely to be the next head coach at Florida, during an appearance on ‘SportsCenter’ on Monday afternoon. He looked back at this past weekend and how this storyline is still ongoing after the Rebels won 34-24 over the Gators on Saturday night in Oxford.

“Well, what is going on is Lane Kiffin is not stopping all this speculation,” said Finebaum. “It’s pretty easy to do. We’ve seen it before. He simply says, ‘I’m staying at Ole Miss’, the school announces an extension, even though they’ve done that a couple of times now, and it’s over. And, that really is the interesting part.”

Kiffin is known to be the hottest candidate on this year’s coaching carousel, with Ole Miss wanting to retain him amidst interest, among other programs, at a Florida or an LSU. And, he, as the regular season comes to a close, has done little to quiet any of the spotlight on the topic, with him yet to outright confirm that he’s remaining in The ‘Sip.

Now, Ole Miss set to be in the CFP has again been referenced as a complication in all of these searches when it comes to Kiffin. The Rebels, assuming all things hold as far as their seeding goes pending what happens as far as the SEC Championship, would currently be hosting a playoff game on December 19th or 20th and, if they win, would advance to play in the quarterfinals on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. The semis would then be on January 8th or 9th, and the national title game is scheduled for January 19th in Miami.

Long story short, a playoff appearance by the Rebels, let alone any wins for them in the field, very much complicates how much of a candidate that Kiffin is. So, even if he does want to coach elsewhere, like Finebaum and Barrie thinks he does in Gainesville, these programs as well as Kiffin may have to make some difficult business decisions.

“We talked about it yesterday on ‘The Matt Barrie Podcast’. I think we both believe that Lane Kiffin wants to go to Florida. The problem is the playoff,” said Finebaum. “Could he possibly walk out? Remember in, what was it, 2016, Lane Kiffin got the job at Florida Atlantic. He kind of dogged it in a playoff game, and Nick Saban fired him a week before the championship game – costing Saban a championship that year. I don’t think Lane Kiffin wants to go through that again.”

Kiffin has not taken another job to go elsewhere in college football yet. But, it’s the fact that he hasn’t done anything to suggest that he won’t this cycle, with less than two weeks until the end of the regular season and less than three until the playoff is selected, that’s most notable at this point.