I never, ever, thought I'd agree with Kiffen....but I guess I do on this matter:
Lane Kiffin sounds off on NIL, transfer portal and offers solutions
Lane Kiffin has
spoken at length on college football's new era of "free agency" with name, image and likeness enhancements leading to a record number of players entering the NCAA transfer portal this month. Kiffin, who has no issue with student-athletes being able to come and go as they please, recently went in-depth on what needs to happen in the near future with more parameters being set to protect players.
"It should just be more thought out, to have windows and you know when they're leaving,"
Kiffin said last week on The Rich Eisen Show. "They should have this, just like coaches do. There's no window. And also, they're not being advised very well. You have thousands of kids going into the portal, but there's not thousands of spots for people to take.
"You put a window (on it). They can only go in at these times. And the NIL should be on a contract."
Broken promises on the recruiting trail are now commonplace in college football thanks to NIL, Kiffin says.
"It's a lot more complicated because you're kind of making it like the NFL where here's your salary cap, but there's not a cap and nothing's on paper,"
Kiffin said. "Instead of here's your free agent contract, these schools say 'hey, you're going to get this here' and then you hear the stories about them saying that and then they don't get it. Then, you see guys in the portal a year later because they were promised these things and didn't get them.
"Again, in free agency you know who's going in the market in the NFL or (other) sports. This one, you have no idea and every day, here's new ones."
Kiffin says assessing names in the portal list similar to recruiting, though coaching staffs may already have a previous relationship from before that player's original first choice.
The portal has opened a new can of worms and challenges for his own staff, Kiffin says.
"We just have to watch them," Kiffin said. "We actually have players that are on our roster that went into the portal, still playing for us and took official visits ... we even had a player that signed somewhere, but is playing in this game and practicing for us. Think about that? You're the Ravens and your middle linebacker or whatever has already signed next year to play for the Steelers as you're still playing."
Kiffin says changes need to happen sooner rather than later in terms of governance.
"You become a free agent when your contract is up in professional sports," Kiffin said. "You can become a free agent (here) whenever you want. Imagine drafting rookies in their first year and they're not liking how they're playing and they can just leave."
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