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

College football powers were built on cheating aka paying players. Now that everyone can pay players it’s no shock that those who paid for decades are suddenly at a loss as to why their coaches aren’t legends anymore and that other teams can now win.

The entire landscape has changed. It’s the biggest shake up since integration. No one knows who the bluebloods are any more. Sure, Bama, UGA, and Ohio St are still winning due to their recruiting prowess, but give it time and money and their recruiting will come down as the middle tier’s recruiting moves up. GT signed its 1st ever 5 star player last cycle. He has openly said it would have been between Clemson or UGA if GT wasn’t able to give him NIL. That’s the story - players now have way more options than Tuscaloosa, Athens, Columbus, Austin, or Baton Rouge.

Schools who pay out the nose for a coach and then get pissed they go 9-3 or 8-4 deserve all the debt they will amass. Brian Kelly and Franklin are good coaches who won a lot of games. Whoever those schools hire will be in the hot seat from day 1 because those schools have unrealistic expectations.In a playoff system it’s a crapshoot unless you have a Jordan, Brady, or Mahomes.

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But if he truly aspires to championship greatness, he needs to do it somewhere where such things are frequently done.

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Is that what Cignetti is doing?

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Vandy has been good for the last two years. If that ain’t telling of a change in the state of cfb nothing is.

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They went 7-6 last year.

They had two 9 win seasons under James Franklin.

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Is that what Cignetti is doing?

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I agree that Ole Miss and Indiana are a good historical comparison. Indiana last won a conference championship in 1966 and of course the historians tell us Ole Miss won one in 1963. My question though, is has Cignetti won some hardware we aren't aware of? I mean I hope he does, and I wouldn't mind seeing y'all win one this year either-but don't you have to do it first?

A lot of people, especially older CFB fans, don't understand that CFB players generally don't play for the name on the jersey anymore. Tradition and prestige don't mean as much when a player's relationship with a football team is largely based around money - the relationship is no longer about pride and love, it's more transactional and materialistic now than its ever been.

Some people think that is a bad thing - I do not. It was always kinda bullshite that schools could make tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars off their student athletes and the athletes couldn't make a dime. The unfortunate thing for late-blooming powerhouse programs like Florida (largely irrelevant before Spurrier) and LSU (most of their success has occurred since Saban got there) is that they don't have the deep rich history (prior to 1990) of an Alabama to lean on. Now, they're having to compete harder than they ever have to stay on top and not get passed by teams like Ole Miss who is 1000% committed to Lane and 1000% committed to winning.

This is not to say that programs like that won't ever win again, because that's a stupid bet that I will not make. However, teams like Florida and LSU aren't going to be able to sleepwalk to a 9+ win season because teams like Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Missouri, etc. are now formidable opponents. Gone are the days when LSU and Florida could stack 5* talent three-deep on their bench while Ole Miss struggled to get a commitment from one Archie Manning's sons. Gone are the days when a sought-after coach like Lane Kiffin would ever consider staying long-term at Ole Miss when a job like Florida, LSU, or Auburn came calling. NIL, social media, and accessibility through the internet have made it where any team can compete at a high level for a long period of time if they just commit to doing so.

All this to say, I don't think Kiffin is going anywhere. Why would he leave a program that he built from the ground up that he has nearly complete autonomy to manage in a city where his entire family now lives and seems to love? Not to mention, he's winning ball games and has Ole Miss in the playoff hunt while LSU, Florida, and Auburn are all going to lose 4+ games and are entering rebuilds? Idk, I understand why other schools think they can get Kiffin, but that decision isn't going to come down to money, legacy, facilities, tradition, etc. like some people think it will.