'I don’t think there’s any other sports at any level that are like this'
College athletes have been able to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL) for two years now, but it's an ongoing trek to the perfect system.
Some, like Olivia Dunne and the Cavinder twins, have netted seven figures based off their looks while others are treating it like professional sports – where they'll get paid the most is where they'll go.
In Lane Kiffin's eyes, the latter is the most popular usage of NIL, or as Kiffin called it, "pay-for-play."
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Head coach Lane Kiffin of the Mississippi Rebels looks on after the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on November 24, 2022, in Oxford, Mississippi. (Justin Ford/Getty Images)
"When this first came out, basically said, whatever programs have the most aggressive boosters with the most money are going to get the players," Lane Kiffin said at SEC Media Days on Thursday. "And now we are adding some states that you don’t have to follow the NCAA, and now the university can take their money and give it to the collective to give it to the players."
"This is a disaster coming because you just legalized cheating, and you just told donors they can pay the players is what you did."
The Ole Miss head football coach also noted that players are understandably taking advantage of every negotiating period they can.
"Now we are seeing you really can get paid three times if you want to," Kiffin said. "You can get paid coming out of high school. You can one-time transfer, go in, get the most money and get paid again. And then you can grad transfer and then get paid again. Eventually, you’ll not be able to do that, I would think, and have that leverage every semester to be able to do that. I’ve told them it’s an awesome time for them."
"With NIL, you’ve got a lot of pay-for-play going on, and that is what it is," Kiffin said. "Those two things combining, there’s not a system in place. I don’t think there’s any other sports at any level that are like this, that really, you every year, can opt into free agency. Really, twice a year."
Kiffin shared a Fox News Digital story last year on his Twitter account with regard to Alabama head coach Nick Saban reportedly letting a top recruit and one of his own players go after they asked for more than $1 million combined from the school.
Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide converses with head coach Lane Kiffin of the Mississippi Rebels prior to facing each other at Bryant-Denny Stadium on October 2, 2021, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
"Someone with one of the best corners in the nation [in high school] came to me and asked if we’d pay them $800,000 for the player to sign here. I told him he can find another place to play," Saban said, according to Baker High School coach Steve Normand. "I’m not paying a kid a bunch of NIL money before he earns it."
"One of them wanted $500,000 and for us to get his girlfriend into law school at Alabama and pay for it. I showed him the door," Saban reportedly said.
Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin looks on during a college football game against the Alabama Crimson Tide on November 12, 2022, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Saban, LSU's Brian Kelly and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey even traveled to Washington, D.C., to make a case for federal assistance in regulating how college athletes can earn money off their fame – Kelly said college athletics was at a crossroads if NIL "doesn't get fixed."
