If Kiffin stays in Oxford, it is a very telling statement on the current state of CFB.

At this point, I would think all the major programs and much of the national media are quietly pulling for Lane Kiffin to leave Ole Miss. Not because it’s the logical next step for him, but because of what it would mean if he doesn’t.

If Lane Kiffin is still coaching in Oxford in 2026, it becomes a powerful statement about how much college football has changed. It’s not just a coaching decision anymore—it’s a cultural shift. For decades, the sport was built around hierarchy and prestige. There were the blue-blood programs—Alabama, LSU, Florida, Ohio State, Texas—where success was assumed, and then there were everyone else’s programs, where winning big meant your coach would eventually be poached. Staying “small” was unthinkable.

But if Kiffin continues to win at Ole Miss and chooses to stay, it symbolizes that those old dynamics are fading fast. The transfer portal and NIL have flattened the landscape. The name on the front of the jersey doesn’t carry the same gravitational pull it once did. What matters now is who can manage rosters, build culture, and embrace the new realities of player movement and brand leverage.

In that world, a coach doesn’t have to chase legacy schools to build a legacy. Kiffin can recruit, compete, and win in Oxford just as effectively as he could in Gainesville or Baton Rouge—maybe more so, because he’s built it on his own terms.

That’s why the “system” would rather see him go. If Lane Kiffin can turn Ole Miss into a consistent national contender and stay there, it upends decades of assumptions about power, tradition, and what success is supposed to look like in college football. It means the era of the automatic “stepping-stone job” might finally be over.

Portal and NIL have changed everything. Loyalty now flows not to the logo, but to the leader—and that might be the scariest thing of all for the old guard.