Lane Kiffin on transfer portal: 'It's a terrible system'

Lane Kiffin has become known as the transfer portal king, but even the portal king isn't that big a fan of the current transfer portal system in place for college football.

To be fair, Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels have benefited in a big way during this 2024 transfer class, adding 12 players total from the transfer portal including former No. 1 overall recruit Walter Nolen, a five-star defensive tackle who transferred from Texas A&M.

Ole Miss has also added other key pieces -- from other SEC teams. EDGE players Tyler Baron (Tennessee) and Princely Umanmielen (Florida) have also joined the Rebels giving Kiffin and his squad a potentially dominant defensive front, which is needed to win in the SEC.

However, just because Kiffin and Ole Miss is taking advantage of the current transfer portal system doesn't mean that Kiffin thinks it's a good thing for college football. And based on the calendar, which has the transfer portal open during bowl season, Kiffin makes a compelling point.

Kiffin's team is prepping for the Peach Bowl against Penn State and here's what he had to say about the current transfer portal system.

"It’s a terrible system. No other — I wouldn’t think any other sports, professional sports, have ever set up a system where free agency starts while the season is still going. So it really makes no sense. You can leave, you can stay, you can go other places, coaches can call you and our season is still going. It would be like before the NFC or AFC playoffs start in a couple weeks, all of a sudden, hey, free agency the week before opens. So you can start recruiting other people’s players and fly them on trips and get them to transfer. So really, in a really bad system.”

It's hard to argue with anything that Kiffin says about the transfer portal, especially the calendar that forces guys like Maalik Murphy and Tode Rodermaker to enter the portal, instead of focusing on finishing the current season because if they wait too long, they might not have a place to play.

However, there is also the reality that college classes start next month and these players are still student-athletes. So I'm not sure what the perfect answer is, but as long as the transfer portal stays in its current format, it will always have big positives, as well as major negatives.