Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin issues warning about transfer portal

The landscape of college football has changed dramatically with the new rules for transfers and athletes now able to profit off their name, image and likeness. While Lane Kiffin has supported those changes, the Ole Miss coach believes they could lead to some “unintended consequences.”

Kiffin spoke about the NCAA’s NIL and transfer rules during an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show” this week. He said college football is essentially a professional sport now, and he warned that the transfer rules are going to lead to less high school players having opportunities to earn scholarships.

“I don’t think it’s going to be as great as everybody thinks and you’re going to have a ton of kids just like we have had, like, hundreds and hundreds of kids that go in with nowhere to go, because the numbers don’t work right,” Kiffin said, as transcribed by David Johnson of 247Sports. “When you lose these kids, they don’t give you new spots. You still only have 25 spots, so a school may only have one or two spots to take people, but all of these kids are leaving thinking they can go somewhere. And then when you take them … let’s say somebody took 10 … now it’s only 15 guys out of high school you can take. That’s 10 less high school players getting scholarships in one program. I think it’s going to have some unintended consequences here.”

Kiffin makes a good point, and that is something the NCAA may have to look into going forward. Schools don’t get an additional scholarship after losing a player via the transfer portal. What that means is that there are scenarios where the same players are essentially occupying more scholarships, which leaves less for incoming high school players.

Nick Saban also issued a warning about the new transfer rules earlier this year, though his program likely stands to benefit from them.