The College Football Playoff is set to begin Friday night, with the No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide traveling to Norman to face another SEC opponent, the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners.
One of the biggest storylines of the weekend will be how the No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels perform in their first game without head coach Lane Kiffin. Kiffin departed after the regular-season finale to accept the head coaching position at LSU in Baton Rouge, a move that drew significant backlash in Oxford, Mississippi — and understandably so.
His departure has reignited debate over the current landscape and rules of college football. This year, more than ever, the sport has seen drastic coaching turnover — particularly in the SEC, which has already seen five head coaching vacancies, with the possibility of more as Michigan reportedly considers several coaches from the conference.
According to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, there are clear issues with head coach buyouts, scheduling, recruiting, and contractual stipulations. He discussed these concerns during an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show” in the wake of Kiffin’s decision.
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“Let’s go back to the warning I provided a decade ago, which was that by moving recruiting decisions to December rather than February, we’ve shifted from the time when Nick Saban was hired at Alabama in early 2007 to a point where every head coaching vacancy is now decided in late November and early December,” Sankey said, highlighting the rapid change in the recruiting cycle.
“It’s not about one circumstance,” he added, somewhat defending Kiffin, who has faced the brunt of the backlash among several coaches who have accepted jobs midseason. “We force this calendar to make decisions early.”
Sankey went on to suggest a potential change to the schedule that could help keep coaches and players intact throughout the entire season, rather than seeing departures before bowl games—or, worse, the College Football Playoff—when teams are competing for the ultimate prize: a national championship.
“If we move recruiting to a different time frame where coaches’ stability is promoted, it seems to me that’s something we can actually control first, rather than every individual contractual relationship… we should be able to have competition throughout the year with those rosters and coaching staffs intact.”
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