Lane Kiffin offers frank response to Dabo Swinney’s NIL, transfer portal comments
By John Buhler
Lane Kiffin and Dabo Swinney want some control when it comes to NIL and the transfer portal.
With college football in the Wild West stages of NIL and the transfer portal, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin backs up fellow Power Five head coach Dabo Swinney of Clemson on the can of worms that has been pried open.
Swinney has been the biggest detractor of the transfer portal in college football. His team does not use it and only brings back former players that were once part of the Clemson program. As for NIL, he wants it to be more regulated than what it is now.
On the NIL front, Kiffin tends to agree with Swinney.
“I read that — I actually texted him, ‘Good job,’ on it because it is,” said Kiffin on The Rich Eisen Show. “I’m for the kids making money. It’s just there’s no — I said it from Day 1. No salary cap in the NFL — how does that work? And different teams have different money, and there’s no real contracts off it because they’re not necessarily locked in. So technically, everybody could be a free agent every year.”
While NIL collectives will find loopholes to navigate a college sports salary cap, the least thing the utterly toothless NCAA can do is create transfer portal windows akin to what we see in professional soccer.
Lane Kiffin backs Dabo Swinney on NIL needing to be regulated pronto
Eventually, there will be limitations and regulations implemented by the NCAA for NIL, but in the meantime, it remains pure and unadulterated lawlessness. One day, that may change, but not right this instant.
“I’ve obviously said a lot about NIL from the beginning of it, let’s make sure we understand that I love the players are getting paid,” said Kiffin. “I just say how it is. I guess I got called a clown before for saying how it is, but NIL has a lot to do with where players go and to not think that is crazy.”
From Swinney’s perspective, this is all about maintaining the status quo of what he built his Clemson program out of. He transformed this southeastern college football into a national power in the years immediately preceding NIL and the transfer portal. He may be Bob Knight-level stubborn about the transfer portal, but there is really nothing he can do about players getting paid.
As for Kiffin, he is dealing with the harsh reality of coaching at a program that is not a blue blood. Ole Miss has money, but not to the degree the more traditional powers of the SEC can ever hope to provide. He has essentially taken over at a mid-to-small market team that cannot outbid the likes of the Los Angeles Lakers or the New York Yankees, so to speak. This has to be hard for him.
Look for more notable Power Five coaches to request regulation on NIL and the transfer portal.
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