After a month of rumors that led to flight tracking and reading far too deeply into cryptic tweets, Lane Kiffin has finally announced he is leaving Ole Miss to take the head coaching job at LSU.
It came as no surprise to me. As soon as the LSU job opened, it felt inevitable that Kiffin would be the next head coach. But by the time the move was officially announced, the damage had already been done — not in a press conference or a contract signing, but in locker rooms, living rooms and recruiting group chats across Oxford.
For the Ole Miss player, you’re 11–1, likely hosting a College Football Playoff game, and you receive a notification about a team meeting. In your mind, that likely confirms what you already feared. Your coach is leaving. And the first thought that hits you is simple: Why would our coach leave us now?
We’re 11–1. We’re on the cusp of playing for a national championship. And our coach is leaving.
Kiffin has maintained that he presented several plans to Ole Miss that would have allowed him to coach the Rebels through the playoff. Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter would not allow it — a decision that is difficult to argue against. If Ole Miss were sitting at 8–4 or 9–3 right now, this decision likely would not have been nearly as difficult for Kiffin.
But the timing is the part of this story that feels most uncomfortable. Not the money. Not the rivalry. Not even the shock of the move itself. It is the timing — and the people caught in the middle — that sting the most.
For Ole Miss players, many of whom committed specifically to Kiffin’s offensive system and his reputation as a developer of talent, the feeling is unavoidable: abandonment. Seniors preparing for their final postseason run now have to answer questions about a future they will no longer be part of. Underclassmen must decide whether to stay, enter the transfer portal, or re-recruit themselves to a staff that may not resemble the one that brought them to campus.
Before getting to the crux of this argument, one thing has to be said plainly.
Kiffin did not handle this properly. That is not a question. He did not handle moving from Ole Miss to LSU well at all. Period.
But you also cannot simply blame him for leaving. Even the timing of his exit points directly back to the calendar.
This was bound to happen with one of the 12 playoff teams this season because of the sheer number of coaching firings at the top level of college football. Penn State, Florida, LSU, Auburn and Arkansas all fired their head coaches, among several others.
Anyone who follows the sport closely knew these jobs were going to be filled by coaches from prominent programs. LSU, Florida and Penn State all needed to “win” their press conferences.
And if you look away from the Kiffin situation for a moment, it is happening all across the country.
Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall took the Florida job while his team is a win away from the College Football Playoff. North Texas head coach Eric Morris accepted the Oklahoma State job while his team is also one win from a playoff berth. Both schools are allowing Sumrall and Morris to finish the season.
Bob Chesney at James Madison accepted the UCLA job while the Dukes are 11–1 and still alive in the CFP picture. Like Sumrall and Morris, UCLA is allowing Chesney to finish the year.
Penn State is reportedly targeting BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, whose Cougars are one win away from the playoff in the Big 12 Championship Game.
The point is this: Kiffin’s situation is magnified because of Ole Miss and LSU, but it is happening all across college football. And that leads to only one conclusion — fix the calendar.
It is unfair to players who put in 10 months of work to reach the College Football Playoff only to have their coach courted by other programs in the middle of it. You cannot blame coaches for taking better jobs. But the players are the ones affected the most, which is exactly what college football should be trying to avoid.
In today’s version of the sport, the most important month on the competitive calendar has become the most unstable one.
Within the same 30- to 40-day window, college football now attempts to juggle:
• Conference championship games
• The College Football Playoff
• Bowl selection and bowl preparation
• The opening of the transfer portal
• Early National Signing Day
• The coaching carousel
• NIL renegotiations with current players
No other major sport in America operates this way. The NFL does not conduct free agency during the playoffs. The NBA does not open its trade window during the Finals. Major League Baseball does not sign free agents in the middle of the World Series.
College football, however, has decided that its most important competitive stretch should also serve as its most chaotic business month.
That structure creates impossible choices for everyone involved — especially head coaches.
If Kiffin waits until after Ole Miss’ postseason run to make a move, LSU loses an entire recruiting cycle. Portal targets vanish. Signing day passes. Roster construction becomes nearly impossible. In the modern NIL and portal era, delay is death.
But because he moved when he did, Ole Miss players feel abandoned, fan trust fractures, and a team still chasing postseason goals is forced to navigate uncertainty. The blowback becomes inevitable.
There is no clean exit anymore. The calendar ensures that.
And again, this is not unique to Kiffin. It is now the reality of college football.
The money only reinforces that reality.
According to a copy of the term sheet obtained by The Advocate through a public records request, LSU signed Kiffin to a seven-year, $91 million contract that pays him $13 million per year before incentives. That makes him the second-highest-paid coach in college football behind Georgia’s Kirby Smart at $13.28 million.
Only three active head coaches — Smart, Ohio State’s Ryan Day and now Kiffin — make more than $12 million annually before incentives. Smart and Day are also two of just three active coaches with national championships on their résumés. Kiffin now enters that financial tier before ever coaching a game at LSU.
The sport now financially rewards immediate movement, immediate recruiting leverage and immediate roster control — not patience.
Perhaps the most uncomfortable detail of all is that Kiffin still stands to profit off Ole Miss’ likely trip to the College Football Playoff. He signed his term sheet Saturday, announced his departure Sunday, and could still receive postseason compensation tied to a team he no longer coaches.
From the outside, it looks like greed or indifference. From the inside, it is structural dysfunction.
Fans see a coach “quitting.” Players feel “used.” Recruits feel “misled.” Emotionally, those reactions make sense. But the reality is that contracts, portal windows and signing dates now leave no clean exits.
Until the calendar is fixed, this will keep happening — with Kiffin, and with the next coach, and the next one after that.
So how could this be fixed?
If the goal is to protect players, preserve postseason integrity and stabilize rosters, a few basic principles must apply. Seasons should finish before roster movement begins. Recruiting should follow coaching hires, not precede them.
Here is a workable framework:
Regular Season:
Allow 14 Saturdays before December to play, with two byes per team.
Season opener: Late August.
Regular season finale: Late November.
Conference Championships & Playoff:
Conference championships: First Saturday in December.
Playoff first round: Second Saturday in December.
National championship game: New Year’s Day.
Finish all bowls before Jan. 1.
Even with a short break between conference championships and the playoff, it makes far more sense than giving some teams 25 to 30 days off before their most important game.
Coaching Carousel Window:
Coaches may be hired from Jan. 2 through Jan. 20.
No in-season poaching.
No bowl-week sabotage.
National Signing Day:
Move signing day to early February.
Recruits would commit knowing who their head coach is, eliminating early December chaos altogether.
Transfer Portal:
Open the portal from May 1 to May 30.
After spring practice and before summer conditioning, allowing real evaluation instead of panic decisions.
This is not a perfect calendar. But it is far better than what college football is operating under now.
Playoff teams would no longer lose coaches mid-run. Players would no longer enter the portal while preparing for bowls. Recruits would no longer commit without knowing the staff. Programs would no longer be forced to rebuild rosters in a three-week sprint of desperation.
Until the calendar is fixed, this sport will continue to see moves like the one Kiffin made. Every December, fans will continue blaming the people trapped inside a system the NCAA refuses to repair.
It is time.
Fix the calendar, NCAA.
