Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin gets blunt about new era of NIL in college football

With Ole Miss now ranked No. 4, coach Lane Kiffin is getting even more exposure than usual. For a megastar like Kiffin, increased exposure means a chance to share his viewpoint on some significant issues around college football, like NIL. In an appearance on Kirk Herbstreit's Nonstop podcast, Kiffin answered a question about how he's handling the NIL-centric college football universe.

Kiffin's NIL approach

I just accept it for how it is and what it is now. And so I don't sit around and complain about it or expect [players] to be different. You're not going to have this team now at these places where every player is passionate about where they're playing and just going to give their all, no matter what. I wanted to go to Ohio State when I grew up and this is where I wanted to play. It is what it is, and there's independent contractors. So I try to talk to them a lot... and I said, 'We understand that this is not the role you wanted right now.'... But I treat it more like the NFL and say, 'But you really need to do your job because what you really want is you really want to get to the NFL or you want to get a new contract here or go in the portal'.... The best way you do that is to play really well in the snaps that you have.... I just try to be realistic.
Lane Kiffin

How the portal has jump-started Kiffin's Rebels

Kiffin's NIL take acknowledges the reality behind player pay and a constant revolving door in the transfer portal. Not only has Kiffin elevated Ole Miss's traditional high school recruiting, but in recent seasons, he has made the Rebels one of the biggest transfer portal players in college football.

247sports ranked the Rebels' 2025 transfer portal recruiting class at fourth in the nation. In 2024, Kiffin landed the site's best overall class. The Rebels also were No. 2 in those national rankings in 2022 and 2023.

Ole Miss had been a dominant SEC power in the days before racial integration, claiming national titles for the 1959, 1960, and 1962 seasons. But between the integration of the SEC in the late 1960s and Kiffin's hiring in 2020, the Rebels had won 10 or more games just three times. Kiffin has already posted three 10+ win seasons of his own and led the Rebels to their highest postseason ranking since 1963.

Once reviled as something of a turncoat after his single-season stint at Tennessee in 2009, Kiffin is now in his sixth season at Ole Miss and seems to have found a home. His NIL approach has certainly been paying off on the field for the Rebels.