SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey calls for changes to college football calendar after Lane Kiffin split with Ole Miss for LSU

If the Lane Kiffin to LSU saga exposed one thing, it was that the current college football calendar is really not conducive to major coaching changes. There are simply too many variables involved.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was asked if the league could put into place some kind of rule that would prevent one program from pulling another program’s coach before the end of a season. Realistically, it cannot.

“You have to go back a number of years, we had a rule about responsibility for outreach if you were going to contact another coach,” Sankey explained. “Our outside legal counsel suggested for anti-trust reasons that it be eliminated, which it was years and years ago. I think that’s an example of the difficulty just legislating at a conference level.”

In fact, Sankey essentially predicted some of the chaos that unfolded with the Lane Kiffin saga. He knew having so many things packed into one area of the calendar was going to create some unintended consequences.

“You can go find my quotes where I warned that an early signing period added in December would change the calendar and the timing of coach changes,” Sankey said. “I think now there are more factors involved. But, in fact, going back to the moment where we added the December signing period, you saw earlier terminations of coaches during the season, and then the need to rapidly hire a coach in late November and early December.”

That’s exactly what happened this offseason. Both Florida and LSU fired their coaches to go with weeks remaining in the season, kicking off the Lane Kiffin sweepstakes.

LSU eventually got the upper hand, but even then, the hiring was messy. There were reportedly ultimatums given to staffers looking to join Kiffin, though those claims were later disputed. All of this in the middle of a playoff run for Ole Miss.

Regardless, the Lane Kiffin ordeal clarified for many people that change is needed. Sankey offered a few avenues.

“There are opportunities for adjustments to the calendar that, at least in my view, probably won’t solve everything but could provide a healthier environment,” he said. “And where there are solutions, so that you’re not disrupting a team’s season, I think those should be pursued.

“Unfortunately the environment we’re in doesn’t allow and hasn’t resulted in some of the changes that even the basic change like removing that early signing period from kind of compelling people to make change rapidly has taken place. Can changes be made? Absolutely. Is it just the recruiting calendar? Likely not.”

What other solutions could there be? How can a Lane Kiffin 2.0 be averted?

“Perhaps it’s the competitive calendar that can be explored,” Sankey said. “But those are multi-level issues where people have different opinions. We’ve added a transfer portal on top of that signing period that adds to the complexity.

“But I think everyone would agree, and forget particular circumstances, you take a step back and whether it’s a roster or a coaching staff, looking at something other than maybe a medical emergency, we should be able to have competition through the year with those rosters and coaching staffs intact. And we ought to figure out how we can adjust collectively on a national basis to make that happen.”