Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss, and College Football’s Lack of Imagination

By now, you’re already aware of the latest news in the never-ending college football coaching carousel. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is leaving to take the open head coaching job at rival LSU.

Ole Miss fans are obviously upset. Imagine you have an older brother who’s better looking and more successful than you. You’re going to have a little bit of an inferiority complex, right? Now imagine your girlfriend breaks up with you and starts dating him. 

Uh-oh. 

College football coaching moves happen all the time. I’m writing this column an hour after news broke that my alma mater’s head coach is allegedly leaving Harrisonburg to coach at UCLA. Hirings and firings are just part of the industry. 

Sometimes, they’re messy. Sometimes, they’re acrimonious. And in this age of the transfer portal, they often involve secondary transfers of additional talent when players inevitably follow their old coach to a new school.

Adam Schefter: “[Lane Kiffin] was making 7 million dollars a year… What I don’t understand… is why didn’t Ole Miss step up and pay him?”

An exasperated Paul Finebaum: “The money was going to be the same everywhere. Ole Miss was not gonna let him get away for a couple million… pic.twitter.com/w0qBqPAjZM

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 1, 2025

But there’s something that feels a bit more world-breaking about Kiffin’s departure for LSU. Kiffin is allegedly leaving for a seven-year, $91 million contract, and no doubt we’d all love to write $13 million on our annual tax form. But once you’re a high-level head coach in the SEC, all those millions do start to become relative. 

Having spoken to many, many coaches over the years, virtually no one’s primary goal is to maximize every last cent of their personal income first and leave championship competition as an afterthought. 

It’s about winning. Always has been, always will be. And in any case, the current reporting suggests that Ole Miss was prepared to match any dollar LSU was going to spend. 

To that end, Lane Kiffin’s departure from Oxford on the eve of a likely College Football Playoff bid is unusual. To misquote Herm Edwards, you play to win the Playoff. Only 9% of FBS teams make the field every year. 

If you’re Lane Kiffin, why on earth would you walk away on the eve of your first career CFP appearance?

live look inside the room, as Lane Kiffin considers LSU vs. Ole Miss pic.twitter.com/reUaWZ7xf5

— Chase Kiddy (@chaseakiddy) December 1, 2025

Historically speaking, college football is an unusually hierarchical sport because of how much talent has to be assembled to form a championship-caliber team. The last 75 years of status quo would suggest there’s about a dozen top-tier programs that have the history, resources, and reputation to build a winning roster. In a classic sense, a coach like Kiffin might leave a program like Ole Miss to get to one of those top-flight jobs that can win it all. 

And in the interest of fairness, let’s take note here: LSU has won two national championships in the last 20 years. Meanwhile, Ole Miss hasn’t even played in a single playoff game.

But all that is the old way of thinking. In this new era of hypermobility and college football capitalism, any program can break through. 

Look at Indiana, which has gone from “the all-time losingest program in the history of college football” to “undefeated regular season” in less than two full years. That’s what a true top-level coach can do. 

James Madison was an FCS program less than five years ago. Because it’s a smart, well-funded program, it’s now piling up 10-win seasons and competing for playoff berths at the top of the G5 pile of teams. 

Texas Tech was an all-offense party school best known to the average fan for wasting Patrick Mahomes potential. Sprinkle a little NIL cash, and all of a sudden, they’re a surefire playoff team with one of the best defensive fronts in college football. 

Kiffin’s departure from Ole Miss in the midst of a playoff run reveals many flaws, but none of them are more damning than a lack of imagination. 

The idea that national championships would be easier in Baton Rouge than Oxford is 20th century thinking. In this age of easy money and greater postseason access, your aspirations are only as limited as your capacity to believe.