‘Lane Kiffin rule’ advances before LSU coach’s return to Ole Miss

Media Reports

WASHINGTON — Lane Kiffin is headed back to Oxford on Saturday.

A rule bearing his name moved closer to federal law Tuesday.

Days before Kiffin leads LSU into Vaught-Hemingway Stadium to face the Ole Miss program he abruptly left last season, the U.S. Senate voted 74-24 to advance the Protect College Sports Act and end the threat of a filibuster.

The sprawling bill addresses athlete compensation, transfers, scholarships, eligibility and name, image and likeness rules. But its most recognizable provision was born out of the messy divorce that will frame Saturday’s SEC showdown.

Call it the “Lane Kiffin rule.”

The provision would prevent an FBS coach or coordinator from beginning head-coaching duties at another school while either team’s season remains in progress. A coach who accepts a new position would have to wait until the seasons of both the former and new schools have ended, whichever comes later. The prohibited duties extend beyond coaching games to recruiting, roster management, practice planning and supervising staff. Protect College Sports Act bill text

In other words, what happened between Kiffin, Ole Miss and LSU could not happen again.

Kiffin left Ole Miss after leading the Rebels to an 11-1 regular season and a place in the College Football Playoff. He accepted a seven-year, $91 million contract from SEC rival LSU but wanted to remain with Ole Miss through the postseason.

Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter refused. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding was promoted and led the Rebels into the playoff, where they defeated Tulane and Georgia before losing to Miami in the semifinals.

Kiffin later acknowledged that he could have handled his departure better. He also expressed support for changing the calendar or rules so other coaches would not face the same situation.

Now he returns to Oxford as the opposing coach while Congress debates legislation bearing his name.

The timing gives an otherwise complicated piece of federal legislation an unmistakable college football storyline.

Senators Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, co-sponsored the bill, which advanced Tuesday when the cloture vote easily surpassed the 60 votes needed to limit debate. That procedural victory does not mean the bill has passed the Senate, but it clears the way for consideration by the full chamber.

“This bill brings order to college sports,” Cantwell said on the Senate floor. “Let’s bring some sanity. Recognize that athletes do deserve revenue sharing, and that this bill will put that into law for the first time.”

The measure would establish national NIL standards to replace the current patchwork of state laws and continue the 22% cap on revenue schools may share with athletes. That figure currently amounts to approximately $21.5 million annually.

It also would create a $27.5 million retention pool intended to reduce schools’ reliance on third-party NIL collectives, protect athletic scholarships from being revoked because of injury or poor performance and allow former athletes to use their scholarships for up to 10 years after their eligibility expires.

Athletes generally would receive one transfer with immediate eligibility, although the bill includes exceptions for circumstances such as a coaching change, discontinued sport, graduate study or sexual harassment. The measure also would make the NCAA’s five-year eligibility framework permanent.

The bill would permit conferences to pool their media rights, preserve funding and participation opportunities for women’s and Olympic sports and provide targeted antitrust protections for certain NCAA and conference rules.

Its broad reach has also produced opposition. Critics have raised concerns about restrictions on athlete movement, the scope of the antitrust protections and the measure’s effect on players’ rights. The SEC and Big Ten previously said revisions were needed before they could support it.

Even after Tuesday’s lopsided procedural vote, the legislation still has several hurdles ahead.

The Senate must approve the bill, after which it would move to the House of Representatives. Any differences between the chambers would have to be resolved before a final version could reach President Donald Trump.

That debate will continue in Washington.

On Saturday, the football version arrives in Oxford.

Kiffin will walk into the stadium he once called home, wearing LSU colors and coaching against Golding and many of the players he left behind.

And hovering over the reunion will be a proposed federal rule created to ensure that college football never sees another departure quite like his.