Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin may be absolutely correct on football calendar

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin is never one to shy away from speaking his mind and Wednesday’s video conference call for the Gator Bowl was no different.

Kiffin called the college football calendar what it is: dumb.

“We just try to make the best of the situations,” Kiffin said during a videoconference call for coaches headed to the Gator Bowl. “It really is a dumb system.”

In the last week, we’ve had National Signing Day, conference championship games and the start of the NCAA Transfer Portal. That’s like, well, exactly like the metaphor Kiffin offered up during the call.

“Just think if the NFL was getting ready for the AFC, NFC playoffs, postseason, and players are in free agency already,” Kiffin said.

That would be complete, uncontrolled chaos and wouldn’t have a cent of common sense with it (although, common sense isn’t very common anymore).

“Think about what we’re talking about or what [Duke coach Manny Diaz had to address when his starting quarterback entered the transfer portal, leaving the first-year coach with backups for the Gator Bowl] just had to address: a quarterback going in the portal,” Kiffin said. “Just think about what we’re talking about. The season’s not over yet, and there’s a free agency window open.”

It really is dumb and for a variety of reasons. First off, the season isn’t over. Second, it’s a lot of important work for coaching staffs and players to do in a short amount of time. Third, college football is missing a great opportunity.

The NFL owns the sporting calendar. There is a major event each month which leads to lots of articles, TV shows and podcasts talking about that event. It keeps the NFL in the news and is a big reason why it is America’s most popular sport.

College football can do the same thing or something close to it. There are plenty of marquee, nationally attractive events that can be talked about for a month (national signing day, transfer portal, the playoff, fall camps, spring games, etc.).

Instead, college football jams most of its biggest moments into a span of a week or two.

It’s dumb.