Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin reacted to recent lawsuits from players against coaches and schools while at the SEC spring meetings.
This comes shortly after Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Jaden Rashada recently sued Florida Gators‘ head coach Billy Napier and the school’s boosters over an NIL dispute that led to Rashada initially going to Arizona State before his transfer to Georgia.
“I don’t know,” Lane Kiffin said. “I don’t really know all the details of the Florida situation. So, I just think there’s a lot of things involved and different things.”
For Lane Kiffin, the bigger issue goes back to NIL and how it was initially instituted. There was confusion and different places were handling things differently than one another.
“The issue, in general, is we have a lot of new changes over the last few years [inaudible] but not necessarily completely thought out. Things happened that weren’t intended, initially, from that, and like I said before they seemed rushed and not really having everybody’s input on what’s probably gonna happen when they make the rules as opposed to the people that make the rules going, ‘Okay, this is how it is to follow,'” Kiffin said.
“I always bring it back to NIL, what it was intended to be and what they thought it was gonna be, and what 98 percent of it is not. It’s pay-for-play. So, I just think that there’s a lot of evolving things with that issue.”
For now, the Jaden Rashada lawsuit is in its early stages and it remains to be seen what the outcome is for that case. However, it could end up dictating how other players move forward, with analyst Kirk Herbstreit saying it could open the floodgates.
“I really never know if the player is at fault or the university,” Herbstreit said. “The fact that this player, I don’t know the details of this player with Jaden Rashada and what’s going on there. If he wins, it will open up the floodgates for sure.”
Lane Kiffin himself had to deal with a lawsuit from a former player, with DeSanto Rollins suing the Ole Miss coach. However, that case has since been dismissed. Notably, that lawsuit was not over NIL issues.
Greg Sankey comments on Jaden Rashada lawsuit against Florida, Billy Napier
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey recently commented on the Jaden Rashada lawsuit to On3’s Jesse Simonton, explaining that he’s not a fan of lawsuits.
“Well I’m not a fan of lawsuits,” Sankey said.
“It’s not the only lawsuit involving a coach over the last year, won’t be the last. You know that you have a legal system and people have rights to pursue what they view as grievances in the legal system sorts that out.”
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