Lane Kiffin calls transfer portal a ‘bad system,’ blames agents for chaos
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Lane Kiffin, like coaches throughout college football — and college athletics as a whole — acknowledge there are flaws with the transfer portal. Yes, Kiffin and others at high-major programs mostly benefit from it when building their rosters. But as a whole, it has a lot of problems. And Kiffin knows who’s at fault.
During Saturday night’s Texas Bowl between LSU and Houston, Kiffin made an appearance in the broadcast booth. He spoke about the transfer portal, and called out agents for driving players to the portal regardless of situation.
“It’s out of control. It’s a bad system. I’m not mad at the players,” Lane Kiffin said. “They all have agents. Even if they want to stay they get in the portal. I tell our coaches and fans you’ve got to get used to being uncomfortable.”
No coach in college football can feel comfortable these days. You can be confident that you have a player locked in for your team one moment, then see him signing with another program in the blink of an eye over the smallest difference in NIL.
College football’s pendulum swing regarding power — from schools/teams restricting player movement/wages to players/agents dictating everything — has been drastic. At some point, it will need to swing back toward a solid middle ground. But there’s no telling how soon that will happen, or how much the sport could be harmed before it does.
