Lane Kiffin Compares Ole Miss to Green Bay Packers in Current NIL Landscape
OXFORD, Miss. -- For Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin, weight rooms and facilities are great, and his team just upgraded in that capacity. Even so, it's not the most important part of college athletics today.
In his mind, it's NIL funds.
Kiffin was made available to the media on Tuesday following his team's practice, and this availability came one day after The Grove Collective held a massive giving day on Monday. According to On3, the collective raised $1.7 million in that day alone, something that the head coach stressed as being paramount to his program's sustained success.
"Extremely encouraged," Kiffin said. "I'm very real on good, bad, ugly. It's been awesome what the collective has done. I feel like Ole Miss is like the Green Bay Packers of college football, especially the SEC. Not the biggest town, most alumni. Them coming together like they have makes me think of Green Bay and shareholders with the team.
"Without that, we're not going anywhere. I don't care how great assistant coaches you have, who your head coach is. You don't have this, you don't have resources, you don't win."
Kiffin has never held back his opinions on the importance of the NIL landscape since its advent in college football, but comparing his program to a franchise as successful as the Packers has to be a positive sign for Rebel fans. Green Bay has a unique ownership system and may not be a huge city compared to other NFL markets, but it is home to a strong franchise.
Perhaps in this current era of NIL, that is something Ole Miss can emulate moving forward.
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