College football giant reportedly prepares $90 million offer for Lane Kiffin

There's an out-loud and very public auction of Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin going on in SEC country. Though he's said that money isn't a primary motivator as a coach, schools are still ponying up to offer whatever they can to lure Kiffin away, in the case of LSU and Florida, or keep him in Oxford, which Ole Miss hopes to accomplish.

Friday was particularly newsworthy on the Lane Kiffin front. A report broke from ESPN early in the evening that Kiffin had met with top Ole Miss officials and a compromise was met between the school and Kiffin to wait on an announcement about his future until the day after the Egg Bowl, Ole Miss' final game of the regular season against rival Mississippi State. In the meantime, though, another report leaked suggesting that LSU is ready to push the entirety of their poker chip haul into the middle of the table.

According to the very trusted Ross Dellenger, a college football insider, the Tigers are preparing an offer sheet for Lane Kiffin that would put him right among the highest-paid coaches in the sport, but with an additional hefty NIL promise to help build out some championship-level rosters right away.

"While specific details of the contract remain fluid, executives have discussed a seven-year, incentive-laden deal worth at least $90 million — figures that would make Kiffin, at the very least, tied for the highest-paid coach in the sport," Dellenger wrote. "The school is, as well, promising significant NIL-related roster investments exceeding $25 million — perhaps the most important determining factor for the coach."

Indiana's Curt Cignetti inked a deal for eight more years and $93 million earlier this season, and Kiffin's theoretical LSU deal is right in that ballpark in terms of lump sum. Plus, the additional $25 million, or more, for the roster, via NIL channels, is huge. Doing some simple math, that's at least a $115 million commitment off the bat, and perhaps could be more based on where the NIL pledge comes out. That's a historic amount of digits (nine!) to offer one collegiate sports coach.

Whether Lane Kiffin cares to become the highest-paid college football coach or not, the real financial motivator, as Dellenger notes, might be that commitment to spruce up the roster through significant NIL avenues beyond what schools are obligated to give via the revenue sharing. Kiffin may be waiting another week or more to give his official decision, but he and the Ole Miss administrators now have a big bone to chew on while they all ponder what's to come.

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