Six months later, LSU AD Verge Ausberry admits Ole Miss got the Lane Kiffin situation right

Wait, if LSU management had been put in the same situation by Lane Kiffin or any other coach, would common sense have prevailed?

Over the past five months, the story of Kiffin defecting from Ole Miss two weeks before the Rebels began their quest for a College Football Playoff title has centered around the thought in Kiffin’s mind that he wanted to coach the Rebels while also becoming LSU’s head coach.

In reality, no matter how you sliced ​​the pie, none of this made any sense. Ole Miss Athletic Director Keith Carter would not only allow Kiffin to be a walking billboard for the opposing team, but also have an open door to get players to Baton Rouge.

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You may or may not agree with Rebels AD Keith Carter’s mentality, but when Kiffin told him after the Egg Bowl on Saturday that he wouldn’t sign a new contract with Ole Miss and wouldn’t take the LSU job, talk of him staying in Oxford for the CFP ended.

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Ole Miss’ decision on Kiffin and the CFP has already been made

In fact, it was over a month ago. Carter has already emphasized that he will not coach Ole Miss in the postseason if Kiffin leaves.

So any revisionist history is just that: a screenwriter trying to rewrite the ending.

As we have reported repeatedly throughout this entire fiasco, the Ole Miss administration was not unaware of what was going on outside its building. Whether it was Florida officials flying to Oxford for a visit during a bye week or Kiffin interacting with LSU officials in different ways during the final few weeks of the Rebels’ regular season.

However, the mentality in some quarters of college football that Kiffin should have been given the opportunity to coach Ole Miss in the college football playoff was lost in the actual reality of the situation. Whether it was Nick Saban, some folks in the ESPN organization, or LSU fans trying to keep poking the bear, the constant opinions were never-ending.

Nick Saban speaks at ESPN’s College GameDay at Vanderbilt University on October 25, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Carly Mackler/Getty Images)

Mind you, this would have been a terrible decision on Ole Miss’ part, given that the story wouldn’t focus on the build-up to the historic season, but rather on Lane Kiffin going into every game as a head coach at two different SEC schools.

Honestly, it’s confusing that we’re still having this conversation five months later, but Lane hasn’t done himself any favors PR-wise over the past few months; with his recent take on how difficult it is to recruit at Oxford when past racial tensions are allegedly still looming.

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But that’s just Lane being Lane, doing her best to keep the conversation about her, which I can’t say is surprising at all.

LSU athletic director finally says the quiet part out loud

Fortunately, we eventually came out of Baton Rouge with common sense through LSU Athletic Director Verge Ausberry.

Should Lane have been allowed to coach Ole Miss during its playoff run, even though he took the job at LSU a week before the start of the postseason?

Let’s change it, shall we?

If LSU had hired Lane Kiffin as head coach and a rival school had hired him during the Tigers’ playoff run, would Tigers management have allowed their head coach to hang around the sidelines during the CFP and also be the head coach of the opposing school?

“I’d probably say, ‘No, we’re not doing that. No,'” Ausberry told The Verge USA TODAY Sports. “But that hand was not dealt.”

LSU Tigers head football coach Lane Kiffin and Athletic Director Verge Ausberry arrive at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport in Baton Rouge, La., on Nov. 30, 2025. (Gus Stark/University Images)

Wait, so after all the crazy ideas that came up with Kiffin accepting the LSU job while he was still lobbying to coach Ole Miss in the CFP, the LSU athletic director would have told the head coach to get out of town?

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Verge Ausberry “If I were Ole Miss, I’d probably make the same decision” in question. “I know LSU will make the same decision. I don’t blame anyone.”

Well, would you look at this?

The LSU athletic director is a smart man and understands the situation Ole Miss was in at the time, because there may likely come a time when he will have to deal with the same type of situations, God bless his own mental health.

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But now we can move on to more important issues, such as what will happen to the salary cap introduced in the Parliament agreement. Or the ongoing battle between conferences not named SEC and the fight to expand the CFP.

College athletics is poised for a hostile few months, and it has nothing to do with what happened in Baton Rouge last December.