Lane Kiffin should seriously consider leaving Ole Miss for UNC

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin was at it again, going viral for comments that many perceived as "whiny" and missing the mark.

Kiffin, whose team was essentially eliminated from the College Football Playoff barring a miracle this past week, was upset over his team's ranking in the latest edition of the CFP rankings.

To that, he said that it was "ridiculous" that a team like Clemson — who plays in the ACC — should be ranked ahead of SEC teams, because in his mind, Clemson would lose hypothetical games if the Tigers were in the SEC.

"It’s ridiculous, the difference of playing in the SEC and the ACC and Big 12," Kiffin said. "To see these rankings – I’m not even doing the Ole Miss homer thing. To think that you’re looking at schools and you’re talking about, like, Clemson’s schedule and who they played over Alabama. It’s stupid. … I’m not gonna name them. Take some of those teams that are up there that haven’t played anybody and put them down in the SEC, they’re .500 teams.”

Ole Miss is currently sitting at No. 14 in the College Football Playoff Rankings with an 8-3 record. The Rebels have lost to three unranked teams in Florida, LSU, and Kentucky. The game against the Wildcats, by the way, was in Oxford.

Kiffin's point that the SEC is a tough conference might be accurate. We have no way of knowing how teams like Clemson or Arizona State would fare in the SEC. The Tigers have looked very good at times this season, and they've also looked very bad, so it's very possible that they would be a .500 team in the SEC, but to use Kiffin's wording, it's "stupid" to live in hypotheticals.

Every week, it seems that Kiffin has something new to complain about. First, it was how he didn't want his team to play in the SEC Championship game. Now that he got his wish and the Rebels definitely won't be there, he's complaining about his ranking, ignoring the fact that he wouldn't even be in this position if he could've just won one of those three games against unranked teams, two of which have shown basically no life all season.

Since there are so many disadvantages to playing in the SEC that coaches like Lane Kiffin apparently need three mulligans, maybe he should just leave altogether and go to a conference he perceives as easier?

North Carolina has an opening beginning in 2025 with Mack Brown being fired and Kiffin would be a great fit. If the ACC is such a pushover, Kiffin could easily go and build a powerhouse program in Chapel Hill and make it to the College Football Playoff every single season. It's so easy right? Plus, there's also the argument that Ole Miss has reached its ceiling under Kiffin, considering the amount of money the Rebels used to put together their roster this season. Why not give it a try in Chapel Hill with new resources and, according to Kiffin, a more advantageous situation?

Of course, he'd have to live with the fact that he wouldn't be allowed to lose three games and still be ranked. Kiffin would also have to live with the fact that if he dropped an early one playing a high-caliber team in the non-conference, he wouldn't have the same margin for error when he loses a game or two he has no business losing later in the year, which he does every single season. Oh, he also wouldn't have the financial war chest of SEC television revenue that he enjoys currently. So, there's that too.

It's not going to happen, but if the "grind" of the SEC is just too much for him, North Carolina is absolutely an opening that Lane Kiffin should consider.

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