A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The University of Mississippi football team is 11-1, and they're in the college football playoffs. But instead of preparing for it, the head coach who got them there, Lane Kiffin, is instead heading to their rival, Louisiana State University. Here to explain the big shake-up is Ralph Russo of The Athletic. So, Ralph, I mean, Lane Kiffin had a great season. Why is he not with his team?
RALPH RUSSO: Well, he got an opportunity to coach at LSU, which historically has been a school that is - that's a better job, right? In the last 25 years, LSU has won three national titles. Ole Miss hasn't done anything along those lines since, you know, before desegregation. So traditionally, it's a better job. He's getting a massive contract. Though, frankly, he would have gotten a similar contract from Ole Miss had he stayed. So he's just simply decided he's going to change jobs.
And the way - because the College Football Playoff is bigger than ever before - it's changed to 12 teams - these moves have to be made during the season while teams still have games, important games like Ole Miss to play in the playoff. And he was faced with a decision to take a new job or stay here. And Ole Miss said, well, you can't stay here if you're going to be the Ole Miss - if you're going to be the LSU coach. If you want to be the LSU coach, you have to be the LSU coach now, and we'll move on without you.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. There's been a lot of, like, very heated and passionate responses to this move. But I guess to college coaches moving around as freely as they do, let's hear from Texas GOP Congressman Chip Roy in the House Rules Committee hearing yesterday.
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CHIP ROY: I mean, why in the hell are we allowing coaches to walk out and be paid not to coach for years? It's insane. I mean, what we just saw unfold with Lane Kiffin is just an absolute abomination.
MARTÍNEZ: Absolute abomination, Ralph. I mean, Roy says that Congress maybe should intervene. Should they? Can they? What can they do?
RUSSO: Well, the irony here is Congress is considering - the House is considering a bill to get involved in college sports and give the NCAA and these conferences, including the SEC, where Ole Miss and LSU play, some antitrust protection. But mostly, that's involved trying to regulate player movement and player compensation in this new era of college sports. They haven't really been able to do anything or really considered much about regulating coaches and coaching movement. You can do that in the NFL, but this is not a professional league. It doesn't have the same legal protections to put limits on coaches and where they go and how much they make. In fact, at times, when that's happened in college sports, they've been sued and they've lost those lawsuits.
So, you know, I think college sports is transitioning into this more professional model, but it's in this evolutionary period, this limbo period where it's not really professional sports, but it's moving towards that. But as of right now, no, you can't really do anything to prevent the coaches from moving around, when and - you know, and the amount of money they make.
MARTÍNEZ: Just a few seconds, Ralph. I mean, is this just the market at work here, or should something be done?
RUSSO: Something should probably be done. Again, I don't know if there's any limit - there's any way they can do it, unfortunately, because it would be better if the offseason was separate from the season, right? Essentially, what you have in college sports is these off-season moves happening...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
RUSSO: ...During the season. And it's affecting teams, and it's really not fair to the players.
MARTÍNEZ: Ralph Russo is a senior college sports writer for The Athletic. Ralph, thanks.
RUSSO: Thank you.
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