Lane Kiffin should be grateful Josh Heupel took it on the chin for him over CFP issue

To each his own... However, Lane Kiffin did not leave Ole Miss for LSU to not make the College Football Playoff most years. Since the playoff first came into existence over a decade ago, LSU and Ole Miss have made the playoff the same amount of times, winning the same amount of games, too. While the 2019-20 LSU Tigers won it all, the 2025-26 Ole Miss Rebels made the national semifinals.

Of course, Kiffin should be thanking his lucky stars Josh Heupel did the heavy-lifting for him here.

"The way college football is constantly changing, that probably makes the most sense."

The Tennessee head coach might be a proponent of a 24-team playoff, but Kiffin may welcome that.

No, Kiffin is not going to come out and say it, but one would think he would welcome further College Football Playoff expansion. After all, he coached several good, but not great Ole Miss teams during his half-decade run in Oxford. Conversely, LSU had not had a top-12 team the last two years, and only had one top-four team during the first machination of the playoff. Expansion serves Kiffin and LSU.

With a tough first schedule coming up in 2026, could LSU make this season's 12-team field anyway?

Josh Heupel may have said what Lane Kiffin was already thinking at LSU...

In the two seasons of the 12-team College Football Playoff, seven different SEC programs have qualified. Georgia has won the SEC both years since expansion, and has earned a top-three seed in both years of this revamped tournament. Tennessee and Texas made it as SEC at-larges in 2024. Last season saw Alabama, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M make it for the first time in this new format.

If we were to kick it back out to the entirety of the playoff's history, LSU is the only other SEC program to ever have a playoff team. To date, schools like Auburn, Florida, Missouri, and Vanderbilt have never qualified. Kiffin may have left Ole Miss, not because he did not think the Rebels could ever make the playoff, but he was doubtful of them ever winning a national championship. Last year's team could...

So by letting Heupel take the arrows for him amid this controversial take, we may be more likely to see even more playoff expansion in the coming years. It would bring to an end the college football bowl system even more so than we know it today. The question is how many automatic qualifiers would there be and where does the rechristened Group of Six fit in all this? Will LSU get more at-large shots?

Overall, Kiffin has impenetrable job security ahead of his first season at LSU. Over the last year or so, Heupel has gone from the penthouse and into the doghouse over in Knoxville. Tennessee is not an easy place to win at in the modern era of college football. Kiffin knows that from his one year on the job there. However, taking over at a place like LSU is about winning it all, not just making the playoff.

To put it quite simple, Kiffin needs to lead LSU to the playoff by 2027-28 to stave off hot seat talks.