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College football program forced to pay head coach for previous school's CFP win

Contractual agreement leaves school paying for coach's previous team's CFP win.
Joe Cox|
A massive Playoff win left a conference rival with an awkward check-writing moment.
A massive Playoff win left a conference rival with an awkward check-writing moment. | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

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LSU TigersOle Miss Rebels

When a coach signs a massive contract, the school understands that certain achievements and accomplishments can leave it writing checks. That's usually accomplished with great relish-- that's how incentives work. What the school might not have realized is that another school's accomplishment left the current employer writing checks anyway.

A win from one of the CFP's eight remaining schools cued a conference rival to have to enhance its hefty payment to its head coach. If this sounds crazy, it probably is.

Ole Miss's 41-10 win over Tulane meant that LSU had to pay a bonus (now totaling $250,000) to head coach Lane Kiffin. Yes, the missing part of the story is that until a few weeks ago, Kiffin was at the helm of the Rebels and the CFP success bonus is part of his Ole Miss contract, which contained such an incentive that was then folded into his LSU contract when he inked his deal with the Tigers.

Interestingly, Kiffin's payday came virtually hours after he took to social media himself with a call for SEC brotherhood. "Its not the hunger games guys (sic)," Kiffin tweeted after Mississippi governor Tate Reeves and Louisiana governor Jeff Landry bantered back and forth on social media about Ole Miss's then-upcoming CFP game. "Let's both cheer for each other all year long except when we play each other," continued Kiffin.

Needless to say, his sudden moment of brotherly affection might be enchanced by the realization that an Ole Miss win would put a cool quarter of a million bucks in his pocket. As for Kiffin's other contention, time will tell how serious the battle between the schools is when Kiffin tries to snag Ole Miss transfers to his new school in a few weeks.

Kiffin can keep profiting off of Ole Miss's success from across the league as the postseason continues. Kiffin had actually already earned a $150,000 bonus with Ole Miss's selection to the CFP. The win from the Rebels merely topped that with an additional $100,000.

If Ole Miss reaches the CFP semifinals with a win next week over Georgia, Kiffin will pull down another $250,000 from LSU for a half-million dollar payday. An appearance in the CFP title game for Ole Miss would bring Kiffin's total to $750,000, and if Pete Golding and the Rebels win the CFP national title, Kiffin will have $1 million in extra reasons to enjoy the Rebels' success without him.

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Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.

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