Nick Saban Demands Major College Football Change Amid Lan...

By Michael Gallagher

Contributing Sports Writer

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With three teams — Ole Miss, Florida, and LSU — vying for the services of head coach Lane Kiffin, the future of three college football programs are in the hands of one individual.

Kiffin is expected to make a decision about which school he wants to coach after the Egg Bowl on Nov. 28, according to Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter, and it’s probable that the No. 6-ranked Rebels could head into the College Football Playoff without Kiffin at the helm.

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Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban voiced his frustration with the dysfunctional college football landscape that caters to everyone but the players. Saban waxed poetic on ESPN’s “College GameDay” on Saturday about needing drastic changes that force head coaches to stay with their respective programs through the full season before they can accept another job.

“We need to take a better approach to the business aspect of what we do in college athletics,” Saban stated. “In the NFL, you cannot leave your team until you’re finished playing. You can’t talk to another coach in the regular season; there’s a defined time where you can talk to them when they’re in the playoffs — that’s the way it should be.

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Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban

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“We shouldn’t have an early signing day that conflicts with people wanting to hire an early coach, a portal situation where you’ve got to hire an early coach or fire your coach early. None of this is fair to the players. So, if we did all that in May, then had some kind of OTA days or something in the summer time instead of spring practice, we wouldn’t have all these issues and players could actually finish the year.”

Though Kiffin is the poster child for this particular issue the given his current circumstances, Saban made sure to drive home that his gripe isn’t with Kiffin looking to advance his carer but with college athletics allowing student athletes to suffer the consequences of decisions that are out of their control.

“This is not a Lane Kiffin conundrum, this is a college football conundrum where we need some leadership to step up and change the rules on how this gets done in terms of coaching searches and opportunities for people to leave,” Saban added.

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