Lane Kiffin blatantly rejects latest College Football Playoff decision

The 2025 college football season concluded with the College Football Playoff National Championship game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, on Jan. 19. It was the finale of the second College Football Playoff since the field expanded to 12 teams.

The first two installments of the College Football Playoff have begun on the third weekend of December. The quarterfinals have centered around New Year's Day as the Rose and Sugar Bowls are traditionally played then. The Thursday and Friday in the week following week have been the dates for the semifinals, and the national championship has been played on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The calendar for the next two editions of the College Football Playoff is going to look different. The first and quarterfinal rounds are still scheduled to take place around the same days, the slight difference being the absence of a game on New Year's Eve of 2026.

The semifinals and national championship are where the schedule is altered. Instead of the eight or nine-day wait between rounds, the semifinals are now almost two whole weeks after the quarterfinals. As a result, the national championship has been rescheduled for the fourth Monday of January.

The changes to the College Football Playoff calendar have created online outrage following their implementation on Tuesday. In addition to the media, LSU head football coach Lane Kiffin chimed in on the discourse about the changes on X Tuesday.

Somehow the calendar got even worse on purpose…. Kids play until Jan 25th and have almost a month between the games?!?! https://t.co/O71xLD1J9D
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) February 3, 2026

In his 26 years as a college football coach, Kiffin has had the opportunity to coach in three College Football Playoffs. Kiffin is also no stranger to clashes with the College Football Playoff calendar throughout his coaching career.

At the end of the 2016 season, his third season as offensive coordinator at Alabama, he was unable to coach the Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff after taking the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic. Steve Sarkisian was Alabama's offensive coordinator during that College Football Playoff.

The last clash Kiffin had with the College Football Playoff calendar was his most infamous one. After guiding Ole Miss to its first-ever 11-win season and College Football Playoff berth, he decided to take the head coaching vacancy left by Brian Kelly at LSU.

While there were multiple reasons why Kiffin was unable to coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoff, the reason Kiffin and many in the national media landscape kept coming back to was the calendar structure not allowing for him to coach the Rebels in their run.

Lane Kiffin at his introductory press conference at LSU. — Dec 1, 2025; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; LSU new head coach Lane Kiffin speaks at South Stadium Club at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images | Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images