College Football is all in a tizzy right now over LSU football and its head coach Lane Kiffin. The conventional description of the issue goes like this. LSU head coach Lane Kiffin is out of control! He’s trying to open up a pathway for NFL players to play in college. He’s singlehandedly ruining the sport by adding former pros to his team. If that is what you’ve heard, you have unfortunately heard wrong.
This kind of inane analysis is all over the place right now, including on the ESPN program “First Take” this morning (see video below). After watching “First Take,” I can hardly believe how much people are blinded by Kiffin Derangement Syndrome. Yes, Lane Kiffin has earned his bad reputation. I get it. But at some point you have to get past that and look at the facts–which too many fans and commentators are steadfastly refusing to do. Here are the facts.
The NCAA wronged a bunch of college athletes by making them think they had to leave their college programs when they really didn’t have to leave after all. And now after granting another year of eligibility to their class, they won’t let them come back for their final year. That’s unconscionable.
This is not about whether NFL players should play in college football. Nobody thinks they should. This is an exceptional case. It is about righting a wrong that the NCAA foisted upon these players. The players are right to sue for their fifth year of eligibility.
Also, this is not an LSU-only issue. Cole Hutson is a Texas Longhorns offensive lineman. He participated in two NFL minicamps in the offseason–one with the Dallas Cowboys and another with the Cleveland Browns. Neither of those teams wanted him, so Hutson sued the NCAA in Texas and got his fifth year back. He is playing with the Texas Longhorns right now.
Mark Mitchell finished four seasons playing basketball for Missouri. He went through the 2026 NBA Draft process and played in NBA Summer League with the Denver Nuggets. He didn’t make the team and then sued to get his fifth year of eligibility in college. He won and eventually made his way back to Missouri where he is now a part of that team.
We could go on and on with stories like this. The lawsuits are happening all over the country, and they are being brought by players from the class of 2022 that are looking to get their fifth year of eligibility. The lawsuits are not being brought by universities but by PLAYERS. And some courts are giving them permission to play.
Schools across the country are choosing to recruit and play these athletes if they are ruled eligible by the courts. It’s no different than when Trinidad Chambliss sued for an extra year of eligibility and won his court case. Chambliss is Ole Miss’s quarterback (in defiance of the NCAA’s ruling) because a court said he could play.
I’m not asking folks to fall in love with Lane Kiffin. I’m not asking anyone to trust Kiffin or to like LSU. Feel free to hate them with the irrational hatred that only a fan can have.
I am asking for you to consider the merits of the case that these student athletes are making in the courts. The vast majority of them have no connections to LSU, and many of them would never have left their university in the first place if they’d known they had a fifth year of eligibility. They only left because the NCAA failed to tell them in time that they had another year to play.
This is not opening the flood gates to pro players coming into college sports. It applies to one narrow group of the 2022 signing-class who have another year of eligibility left. It’s a one-off and won’t happen again after this year. This is not setting a precedent but is based on a very specific set of non-repeatable circumstances.
You wouldn’t know any of this from the inane analysis by talking heads like what is on display in the video below. Stephen A. and Paul Finebaum are being irrational. Their analysis is that Lane Kiffin is evil and is trying to open up the NFL for college recruiting. That is such a distortion of what is actually going on.
But good luck explaining that to anyone. They are too busy with Kiffin Derangement Syndrome to rationally consider the merits of the case these athletes are making. But that doesn’t have to be you. Know the facts, and make a judgement based on the merits of the case.
