Lane Kiffin didn’t waste much time Thursday in Tampa when the conversation turned to the College Football Playoff and the SEC’s new nine-game grind.
With SEC Media Days focused on LSU, Kiffin was asked about a schedule that now asks every league team to play nine conference games instead of eight. LSU’s non-conference slate includes Clemson, Louisiana Tech, and McNeese, and the Tigers are also staring at a rugged SEC draw that includes a trip to Ole Miss - where Kiffin will return to Oxford - plus home games against Texas A&M, Alabama, and Texas.
That backdrop set up Kiffin’s criticism of how the CFP selection process handles strength of schedule. Per Brett McMurphy of On3.com, Kiffin said, "My concern is the [College Football Playoff] selection process is not fixed until it is truly fixed to reward strength of schedule. If we keep playing each other, we don't prove we're better than anyone else."
He expanded on that point in video from CFB Kings on X, saying, "Until we can get into a world where people can actually look at teams and say, that team that is 9-3 with their schedule is a better team than that 11-1 in a different conference, which now I think we aren't even close to doing that, I think it causes problems."
It’s a familiar complaint around the SEC, where the debate usually surfaces every year once the regular season ends. A 9-3 team can end up making a case for the playoff, and Texas did it a season ago. Kiffin’s Rebels were in that spot two years ago.
For LSU, though, the path is obvious enough: win the games on the schedule and the committee debate takes care of itself. The Tigers are expected to be in the mix at the top of the SEC and in the College Football Playoff conversation in 2026, even with plenty of roster uncertainty after a busy run through the transfer portal.
The schedule won’t be soft, and nobody is pretending otherwise. But if LSU handles its business, strength-of-schedule arguments won’t be the story. The Tigers will have already made it for the committee.
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Weston Davis is one of the clearest examples of how quickly the pressure can shift when a staff changes and the competition gets deeper. He and Braelin Moore are trying to turn last seasons inconsistency into something more dependable, while the receiver room is crowded enough that every practice rep matters. Tre Brown is part of that traffic jam after transferring in, and with so many wideouts in the mix, LSUs early camp work will go a long way toward sorting out who earns trust first. [Read more 🡒]
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Kiffins own return to Ole Miss figures to bring a similar kind of heat, and Saban apparently made sure he understood the assignment. The conversation even veered into one of those only-in-college-football anecdotes about Sabans wife trying to counteract the bad vibes around LSU games, which only adds to the legend of those trips. However Kiffins next visit unfolds, it sounds like Saban believes he may need all the help he can get. [Read more 🡒]