It remains unclear as of Saturday evening whether Lane Kiffin will be leaving Ole Miss on a potential College Football Playoff run this winter.
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported that Kiffin’s future remains undecided after a Saturday afternoon meeting with athletic director Keith Carter and chancellor Glenn Boyce.
According to Dellenger, “LSU officials believe they hold Kiffin’s commitment to be their next coach, though his desire to continue coaching Ole Miss in the postseason is a snag delaying the formalization of the move.”
Dellenger later reported that Kiffin’s reps and LSU executives held a call after the Tigers’ loss to Oklahoma to “continue solidifying the deal with travel plans,” adding that the school is “sending two plans to Oxford on Sunday for Kiffin, his family and others.”
ESPN’s Marty Smith added that Kiffin is expected to hold a meeting with Ole Miss players and staff at 9 a.m. CT on Sunday morning and will have an announcement regarding his future afterward.
Carter previously said in a Nov. 21 statement Kiffin was expected to make an announcement regarding his future Saturday.
Dellenger reported the same day that LSU had been discussing offering Kiffin “a seven-year, incentive-laden deal worth at least $90 million” as well as more than $25 million for NIL and revenue sharing.
Since then, according to Dellenger, LSU executives have “remained confident” that Kiffin will take the job.
One source told Dellenger: “”If he doesn’t come, we’ve been duped.”
Dellenger wrote Saturday, however, “doubt lingers” about Kiffin’s ultimate choice given his repeated public statements that he has not yet made his decision.
Kiffin said as recently as his postgame interview following Friday’s Egg Bowl win over Mississippi State that he hadn’t yet decided where he’ll be coaching next season.
“I’ve got a lot of praying to do to figure that out tomorrow,” Kiffin told ESPN’s Taylor McGregor on Friday.
Dellenger reported that Saturday’s meeting between Kiffin and Ole Miss officials was expected to center around the head coach’s desire to remain in Oxford for a potential playoff before leaving for LSU, which Ole Miss is “not expected” to allow.
The College Football Playoff selection committee seeds teams for the playoff based on factors including the “unavailability of key players and coaches that may have affected a team’s performance during the season.”
Kiffin’s decision could potentially change Ole Miss’ seeding in the program’s first playoff.
His delayed decision could also impact the Rebels’ ability to replace him. Dellenger reported Saturday that Carter had spoken this week with potential replacement candidates including Tulane’s Jon Sumrall, but that Sumrall is now “believed to have a deal in principle” with Florida.