Lane Kiffin compares NIL to offensive changes in the 2010s

College football has gone through some serious changes in the last year. If the transfer portal wasn’t enough, NIL has had a groundbreaking effect in just under a year. Some coaches have had an easier time adapting to the new format than others. Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin says he sees comparisons between NIL changes and the offensive shift through the 2010s.

“It’s just like offense,” said Kiffin at SEC Spring Meetings, via On3’s Jesse Simonton. “There’s a lot of people who said they weren’t going to change the offenses we used to run years ago.”

As one of the most well-respected offensive minds in the NCAA, Kiffin sees lots of similarities between the two. While defenses can still win games, high-powered offenses have been the motor behind some of the best teams in college football in recent years. The same could end up true for schools that more quickly adapt to what college football is today.

In Kiffin’s mind, he thinks some will get left behind if they can’t accept the NIL system. “If you don’t embrace it or figure it out or don’t try to work with it, you’re not going to be here very long,” he said.

NIL has been likened to a genie in a bottle. Now that it’s in the open, it will be nearly impossible to go back to where the game was before. While the NCAA needs to put more rules in place to regulate it, it’s up to the coaches and their schools to do their best until then. Kiffin says it may not be everyone’s favorite topic, but it’s something that those in the college game will have to get used to.

“It’s the world that we’re in,” he said. “You gotta be able to embrace things that may be not what you wanted. It’s just the way it is now.”