'Really Stupid!' Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin Rips Broken Transfer Portal System

Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin gave more thoughts on college football's transfer portal system on Tuesday...and they weren't positive.
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl - Ole Miss v Penn State
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl - Ole Miss v Penn State / Alex Slitz/GettyImages

Multi-time transfers are now immediately eligible in college football, and while that system can benefit the Ole Miss Rebels, their head coach recognizes the dangers that this slippery slope can give the sport as a whole.

On Tuesday, Lane Kiffin was asked if he believed this spring transfer portal cycle would be increasingly active due to the new rule from the NCAA, and he didn't pull any punches in his response.

"I do, obviously because they can transfer multiple times," Kiffin said. "Here again, just a really stupid system, but hey, good for the players -- maybe. It's good for them financially. I don't know that it's really good for them that they can leave any time when something goes wrong, they're just going to run, no matter what.

"But I think what you're going to see is people that [say], 'I'm going to go somewhere in January, get their money, have never played a down as a transfer and go right back in after spring ball into the portal and go somewhere else and get their money.' You can say, yeah, 'good for the players,' but is it? It's good financially for them, but is that really good for college football?"

That's not to say that he and the Rebels won't or haven't taken advantage of this system. Ole Miss' transfer portal haul over the winter was tabbed as one of the best in the country, so while this framework is in place, Kiffin plans to utilize it to help his roster in the best way possible.

He doesn't blame the players for potentially wanting to take advantage of it too, even if it just comes down to their pocketbooks. Still, he believes this current trajectory isn't sustainable, and he thinks even a small step in the right direction would help curb some of the chaos.

"You can't really blame them," Kiffin said. "You've created a system that you can just keep getting money basically at the end of every semester somewhere else and switching spots as many times as you want. That's not good, and I think you are going to see that.

"You better make something where you have to sign for a year so all these portal players that after last season go in, at least they sign for one year, not one semester without playing in the offseason."

Kiffin was then asked a more football-focused question regarding his offensive line, but before he dove into that answer, he gave his final thoughts on the current state of the transfer portal and how it's simply "not good."

"It's really a (expletive) system. It is," Kiffin said. "We're going to utilize it just like the player. I'm not mad at the player. They're going to utilize the system, we're going to utilize it and make the best roster that we can. But it's not good."

Some of the players who are expected to make the biggest impact on the field for Ole Miss in 2024 are former transfers. Quarterback Jaxson Dart, wide receiver Tre Harris, defensive tackle Walter Nolen, edge rusher Princely Umanmielen and numerous others once braved the waters of the transfer portal to find their way to Oxford with hopes of making a College Football Playoff run this season.

Again, just because you benefit from it doesn't make the system as a whole good for the sport, and that's the stance that Kiffin has faithfully kept during his tenure in Oxford.


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John Macon Gillespie
JOHN MACON GILLESPIE

John Macon Gillespie is the publisher of The Grove Report and has experience on the Ole Miss beat spanning five years.