Lane Kiffin fires shot across the bow of Big Ten, hypes SEC

During his time at the podium at SEC Media Days, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin championed the Southeastern Conference’s competitive superiority. Asked about USC and UCLA’s move to the Big Ten and Oklahoma and Texas’s move to the SEC, the former Trojans head coach didn’t hold back his opinion on which conference will be harder to join.

“They’ve been playing in great conferences against great opponents so I’ll just say how it is, I don’t know if it’s a huge jump to the Big Ten,” Kiffin said. “Going to the SEC is a whole different animal. I think the draft picks and national championships prove that.

They’ve said it for a long time, the SEC just means more and it does. It’s ahead of the game. Players are starting to come that didn’t used to come from the Northeast and the West Coast. I feel like that transition started with Alabama, especially. I know everything is, obviously, about money these days, or else people wouldn’t be going to this playing all over the place and breaking up these awesome traditions. The coaches have to deal with it and get ready for a different world.”

Kiffin: ‘SEC is the top of everything’

Kiffin is clearly not a fan of the money-driven changes occurring around the NCAA. However, he acknowledged that other conferences are trying to keep up with the SEC.

“The SEC is the top of everything,” Kiffin said. “Everybody is always trying to chase the SEC and figure it out. I don’t know the history behind the moves but I’m sure it had something to do with the SEC starting the moves for traditional teams like USC and UCLA to move like that. Not that my opinion matters on it but I don’t like that, I think that that’s … there’s so much tradition. You see how passionate fans are about certain things and rivalries, for those to be dismantled by money is kind of a shame.”