Lane Kiffin blasts NCAA over lack of home-grown Senior Nights in 2026 college basketball season
By David Wasson
Published:
If it feels like LSU football coach Lane Kiffin is perpetually on social media, well, you aren’t imagining things.
The former Ole Miss coach loves social media – and uses it often to agitate, needle and otherwise inflame a wide variety of topics. Wednesday, Kiffin grabbed his mobile device and popped out a quick message to his 848,300 X followers some criticism toward the NCAA about the near-total absence of seniors playing college basketball.
Kiffin’s X message was in response to an original message from CBS Sports national college basketball writer Isaac Trotter, who pointed out that there are only 22 high-major scholarship players that will celebrate Senior Night this week in the program they began their career with.
Trotter’s hypothesis is that the dozens of annual coaching changes, NIL riches and open transfer portal lends itself to the dearth of stay-put seniors. That includes Mississippi State’s Shawn Jones Jr., the only such player in the SEC to finish where he started in 2025-26.
Of course, college basketball isn’t the only place where the phenomenon occurs – as the same confluence of factors lends itself to the same outcome in Kiffin’s profession and sport. LSU, for example, saw 38 players leave via the transfer portal this cycle and welcomed in 40 new players. Ole Miss, Kiffin’s former program, saw 23 players depart via the portal and 29 players head to Oxford via the same system.
Here’s a look at the latest College Football Playoff odds on Kalshi:
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
