Lane Kiffin doubles down on his NIL remarks: ‘You could see these problems coming’

Lane Kiffin has beat the same drum about name, image and likeness for a long time, and in recent weeks, he’s doubled down on the comments he’s made about NIL being legalized cheating.

During a segment on ESPN’s “First Take,” Kiffin again referred to college football as being a professional sport because players get paid. There’s also the added layer of collectives paying players without communicating with the head coach.

“So how would that system work in professional sports like the NFL,” Kiffin said. “… From the beginning of this thing if you understood it, you could see these problems coming. I’ve said it, you’ve basically legalized cheating. I said this the first week this came out, so we are where we are.”

A so-called cap on what the players are paid would offer a way to manage it for Kiffin. He admitted that he doesn’t have a “perfect system” but indicated that some regulation is needed.

Lane Kiffin thinks there needs to be a cap on N.I.L. deals:

“[The NCAA] basically have now legalized cheating.” pic.twitter.com/qwv0g9rzqK

— First Take (@FirstTake) July 27, 2022

At SEC Media Days last week, Kiffin said, “Ideally I would think that the coach should be part of managing that. That’s how you’d want it done. But I don’t know if it will be that way or whatever. So that’s just how I would do it. That’s based off of look what happens in professional sports. There’s salary caps. The coach and the general manager/owner manage that.”

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.