Why Isn't Lane Kiffin Coaching Ole Miss in CFB Playoffs? Here's the Reasons

Lane Kiffin stands to make a lot of money on his LSU contract, but his move to Baton Rouge is coming at a high personal cost.

Ole Miss confirmed Kiffin's exit and Pete Golding's promotion to head coach on Sunday.

"For our program to begin preparing for its future — both the short and long term, he will be stepping away from the team immediately," athletic director Keith Carter said.

Kiffin released his own statement, saying he had hoped to coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoff and offered to have "guardrails in place to protect the program in any areas of concern."

There's past precedent for a coach staying through the bowl game despite accepting an outside job. North Texas is letting Eric Morris finish out the year even after he him took an offer from Oklahoma State.

In the case of Kiffin, this simply wasn't going to be a tenable situation.

The fanbase has already deemed the 50-year-old to be persona non grata in Oxford. A small contingent gathered outside of University-Oxford Airport on Sunday to boo him as he boarded a private jet.

Now imagine the atmosphere with Ole Miss playing a home game at Vaught–Hemingway Stadium and Kiffin on the sideline in the first round of the playoff.

There's also a self-preservation factor at play for the Rebels. Some of their assistants could follow Kiffin to LSU, and he may try to bring some of their players to the Tigers as well.

Ole Miss is under no obligation to help a direct SEC rival build for next year.

Concerns about Kiffin's dual loyalties weren't without merit given how he exited Alabama. Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban expedited his departure ahead of the playoff in 2017 because he was "worried that Kiffin was spending too much time assembling his coaching staff and recruiting players for his new school," per ESPN's Mark Schlabach.

In that case, Kiffin was swapping Alabama for Florida Atlantic. He wasn't convincing key Tide players and assistants to go with him to the Owls.

Whatever "guardrails" he proposed, Kiffin didn't earn the benefit of the doubt with Ole Miss.

The locker room may not have liked getting left high and dry, either, even if he stuck around. According to Neal McCready of Rebels247, the internal goodwill toward Kiffin quickly eroded once he made up his mind:

Changing coaches when the program is in contention for a national championship is less than ideal for Ole Miss. In a perfect world, the collective goal of winning a title would be enough to keep everybody rowing in the same direction.

Realistically, there's no chance Kiffin could continue his duties.