Lane Kiffin shares pros, cons of Ole Miss NIL collective

NIL, as it always has been, is an ever-changing and always controversial subject that nobody can seem to agree upon. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is at the forefront of the discussion and criticism.

Kiffin said that just like everything on the subject, both good and bad come with it. When it comes to revenue sharing for the Rebels’ NIL collective, The Grove Collective, Kiffin has his doubts.

“On the surface, it would be great because players are getting paid and it’s coming from the money they are helping make the university,” Kiffin said of NIL collective revenue sharing during SEC Media Days. “I kind of try to think things through, and the other thing that happens when you do something, just like when everybody is like, ‘We have this NIL, it’s great, and this portal, it’s great. Whoa.’

“And I’m not saying I was the only one saying it. Whoa, this is a disaster coming because you just legalized cheating and you just told donors they can pay the players is what you did. And it’s supposed to be set up as your name, image, and likeness, for your marketing. Again, that’s not what happened. That’s not what’s happening. They are getting paid to go to school. So it’s pay-for-play.”

On the surface, Kiffin is referring to the fact that Ole Miss’ NIL collective obtains money through revenue sharing — but that’s all they give the student-athletes. They’re basically paying those players for being on the Ole Miss roster.

So in Kiffin’s eyes, those kids still have NIL because of the sheer fact that they are being paid — but it’s not for their marketing rights as the NCAA intended when it passed the laws. Revenue sharing is good in the long run, as every player gets paid, but then you’re still going to have the star players make the big bucks because they’re being showcased on a national level.

They say revenue sharing would make NIL an equal playing field — which is what the NCAA always wants to do — but when there is no set salary cap across the NCAA and every program operates off different budgets, things get a little murky.

“I don’t know if [revenue sharing] fixes it,” Kiffin said. “Sounds good but then you are still going to have: Here is your revenue-sharing pot that everybody is the same, but then here you’re still going to have all this other money that donors can go and give players. Or the way it is now, in some states, the school just funnels the money to the players.”

There won’t be an easy solution to equality in revenue sharing — but Kiffin’s words have always carried weight in the NIL space. This should be no different.