Lane Kiffin: NIL, transfer portal are ‘legalized cheating’ in college football

Lane Kiffin blasted name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation and the transfer portal during Thursday’s SEC Media Day, calling college football’s new system “a disaster.”

The Ole Miss head coach likened the sport to a “pay-for-play” system that helps big schools while smaller schools don’t know whether they’ll retain their top talent from one year to the next. 

“We have this NIL, it’s great, and this portal, it’s great. Whoa. And I’m not saying I was the only one saying it. Whoa, this is a disaster coming because you just legalized cheating and you just told donors they can pay the players is what you did,” Kiffin said at a press conference.

“And it’s supposed to be set up — well, really it’s for your name, image, likeness, for your marketing. Again, that’s not what happened. That’s not what’s happening. They are getting paid to go to school. So it’s pay-for-play.”

“When you add the NIL at the same time, we have created, I’ve said it before, we’ve got different caps and no luxury taxes,” Kiffin added. “So we’ve got professional sports, because that really is what we are, what’s been created now, and there’s no caps on what guys can make or what teams’ payrolls are.”

Kiffin has certainly used the transfer portal to his advantage since it came into existence in 2018.

This season, Ole Miss acquired 20 players through the portal, including Oklahoma State quarterbacks Spencer Sanders and five-star LSU recruit Walker Howard. 

Last season’s starting quarterback for the Rebels, Jaxson Dart, also came to Oxford through the portal.

“That’s the world we live in,” Kiffin said. “But at the same time, I don’t think that’s really good for college football. These massive overhauls of rosters every year really is not in the best interest of college football.

“There’s kind of your state of union on the situation of what all coaches are dealing with around the country — really, a poor system that isn’t getting better and now is going to get worse.” 

Kiffin is entering his fourth season as the head coach of the Rebels. 

Ole Miss finished 8-5 last season and is 23-13 overall since Kiffin took over in 2020.