Lane Kiffin comments on John Calipari's key complaint about the state of college sports
Lane Kiffin and John Calipari have long been two of the most interesting and controversial head coaches in college sports. Each has been unafraid to share their opinions with the media, and Kiffin has especially found posting his thoughts directly to his Twitter to be fruitful. This weekend, the Ole Miss head coach crossed paths […]
Lane Kiffin and John Calipari have long been two of the most interesting and controversial head coaches in college sports. Each has been unafraid to share their opinions with the media, and Kiffin has especially found posting his thoughts directly to his Twitter to be fruitful. This weekend, the Ole Miss head coach crossed paths with the Arkansas basketball head coach on one of the most important topics across college sports.
The transfer portal.
After Arkansas' men's team beat No. 5 St. John's on Sunday, Calipari was asked about how he'll handle the opening of the spring transfer window on Monday. Calipari first acted surprised with a sarcastic response before delving into the difficulty of handling multiple priorities as the lead of the program.
"This Monday? Welcome to my world," he said with a smirk. "So Monday, we're really preparing for a game and we're having individual meetings about, 'Are you coming back? Are you leaving?'
You know, if they put their name in the portal, they probably don't have an option to come back," Calipari said. … "I care about the kids. At the end of the year it's all about them. Whatever they choose. … It's their choice and I've always been that way. But it's getting harder to be that way."
Kiffin didn't waste time chiming in, responding with his own quip about the NCAA's decision to start the transfer window smack dab during the most important stretch of the year.
"Welcome to college football lately," Kiffin wrote on X.
College football is working toward condensing its two portal windows, pushing the dates to right after the New Year when all but the National Championship game has been played. The tough thing that football contends with is the start of the spring semester, which is often around January 10 at most schools.
College basketball generally doesn't face the same time constriction from a scheduling standpoint, but schools on quarters are worse off than those on semesters.
The transfer portal is still very much a work in progress. College basketball has already shortened its window from 45 days to 30 and moved the start one week later than its original date. However, Sweet 16 teams are now stuck working overtime by preparing for a program-defining game and whether to play guys who want to leave sooner than later.
