Lane Kiffin texted 'good job' to Dabo Swinney after CFB 'blowup' comments

Swinney and Kiffin both see the current system as untenable.

by TigerNet Staff - Tue Apr 19 13:24:29 GMT-04:00 2022

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin read Dabo Swinney's comments recently about a needed 'blowup' to the college football system and offered his support via text.

"I read that — I actually texted him, 'Good job,' on it because it is (frustrating)," Kiffin said this week on The Rich Eisen Show (via 247Sports). "I'm for the kids making money. It's just there's no — I said it from Day 1. No salary cap in the NFL — how does that work? And different teams have different money, and there's no real contracts off it because they're not necessarily locked in. So technically, everybody could be a free agent every year. And really — think about how messed up the system is.

"If you're a great player — you're Bryce Young after the national championship last year — you should go in the portal — even if you wanted to stay at Alabama, 'cause all you'll do is drive up your price there, because then the collectives, they'll suddenly come with a lot of money, Alabama people to keep you. So what would any player do — to opt into a free agency every year? They would do it, test the market, and get the most you could."

There are states with different laws in place regarding Name, Image and Likeness endorsements for athletes, with the state of South Carolina a prime example of enacting one stricter than some and now in the process of peeling back layers on it.

Kiffin said those laws make for a system that has an uneven playing field on NIL.

"It’s basically like everybody’s got different salary caps," Kiffin said earlier this year. "I joked the other day that they’re gonna implement a luxury tax on Texas and Texas A&M. What they’re paying the players is unbelievable. It’s legal. You’ve got players who have never played before making hundreds of thousands or even a million dollars. It is what it is, but it’s not going to be an equal playing field around the country at all. … What would happen in the NFL if people had different salary caps? Eventually, you know, those guys with the high salary caps are going to win a lot of games."

Kiffin has been outspoken about NIL and its draw for recruiting, including drawing the ire of former FSU coach and Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, who called him a "clown" for intimating that the Aggies' recruiting success recently was tied to NIL.

Swinney has held that he is in favor of NIL but not at the expense of education.

"There's so much bureaucracy and you can't get anything done in a real-time manner. It's frustrating," Swinney said to ESPN. "The communication is not good and the rules are outdated. Again, there have been a lot of positives when it comes to the scholarships. But you've got all these people voting on things, and it's just not apples to apples."

"I am against anything that devalues education," Swinney also said. "That's what I'm against. I am for anything that incentivizes education. People will come after me because I've always said that I'm against the professionalism of college athletics, and I am. Kids don't know what they don't know. That's a slippery slope if you professionalize college athletics, and now you've got salaries and taxes and you can fire kids on the spot and they've got to pay for their tuition and they pay for their housing and everything else.

"Athletic directors would sign up for that in a heartbeat. They'd save money."