As the college football world waits for Lane Kiffin to decide whether he’s staying at Ole Miss or leaving for LSU or Florida, let’s take a page out of Kiffin’s book.

Page 223 of the one he’s reading, to be exact, which we know because he posted about it last week on social media:

Have the best tuesday ever everyone. 💙❤️🇹🇹 #10-1 ⁦@OleMissFB⁩ pic.twitter.com/LO1e3gTz4x

— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) November 18, 2025

How do you know what to do next? … You make two lists, the positives and the negatives, and you weigh them.

Good idea. We made the case for (and in some cases against) some of his options as we wait for an official announcement, expected by Saturday. Because it’s Kiffin, we included a few wild-card scenarios … just in case.

Let us know what you think Kiffin should do in the comments.

LSU

Kiffin is chasing a national championship, and there is no better place for him to do that than LSU. He almost certainly knows this.

Three of the Tigers’ past four head coaches have brought a national title to Baton Rouge, and the only one who didn’t in that span — Brian Kelly — was never a culture fit. Kiffin will be. Sure, the governor getting involved in the coaching search and the administration’s instability is annoying, but Kiffin has already coached through some ridiculous situations, and the Tigers’ pluses outweigh their potential minuses. LSU will give its football coach every resource he could possibly need, and Kiffin can build the best rosters of his career here. The Tigers aren’t afraid to invest when it comes to both transfer portal and high school prospects, including the Louisiana kids who grow up dreaming of playing for the only Power 4 program in their state. This year alone, two of the top 30 prospects in the class, including the nation’s No. 2 player — defensive lineman Lamar Brown — would be right in Kiffin’s backyard. The portal king would be all but a lock to land the best players in his state.

And have you seen this fan base? The Tigers create one of the best environments in college football, especially for night games at Death Valley, which was voted The Athletic staff’s No. 1 stadium. At Ole Miss, Kiffin has pleaded with fans to show up on time and stay for entire games instead of camping out at their tailgates all day.

LSU will embrace Kiffin, who knows the league as well as anyone, and will give him all of the support he needs to bring another title back to Baton Rouge.

— Grace Raynor

Lane Kiffin could replace Brian Kelly, the first LSU coach to not win a national title since the 1990s. (Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)

Florida

If Kiffin wants to go to the place that offers him the highest personal ceiling, it’s Florida.

Despite the increase in parity across the sport, the factors needed to win a national title haven’t changed. Proximity to talent, elite resources, rich tradition and a strong fan base are still requirements, which explains why the sport hasn’t had a first-time national champion since … Florida in 1996. The Gators still check every box and have advantages Ole Miss can’t match.

Although Florida isn’t the best job on this list — LSU is — that’s only part of the equation with Kiffin. The Gators offer him a brighter spotlight (just in case he cares about such things).

Florida fans don’t just want to win. They want to win with offense and style points, the way Steve Spurrier once did. The Gators’ latest hires either didn’t understand that expectation (Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain) or couldn’t accomplish it (Billy Napier, late-stage Dan Mullen). But Kiffin? That’s him, down to the visor, which is why Florida fans were clamoring for him before Napier was even fired.

If Kiffin wins a national title at LSU, he’ll be like three of his four immediate predecessors there. Cool. But what if he does that at Florida, which has been irrelevant for most of the past 15 years? And what if he does it while continuing to field elite, entertaining offenses and cracking one-liners? In that scenario, he won’t only be remembered as a program savior who made the Gators great again; he’ll be a beloved, iconic Florida figure alongside Spurrier. That potential connection is something no other program can offer.

— Matt Baker

Ole Miss

All that glitters is not gold. LSU and Florida want Kiffin to come and lead their program to the College Football Playoff and a shot at national championships … something Kiffin is already doing at Ole Miss.

The easy argument is that the ceiling is higher at places like LSU and Florida, where the dream of a championship is more attainable than at Ole Miss. Which, maybe? The Tigers and Gators have won titles much more recently than the Rebels, but it’s a new dawn in college football, when the support and resources (and autonomy) Kiffin has in Oxford could outweigh the bigger, bluer-blooded legacies in Baton Rouge and Gainesville. Look no further than the current CFP rankings, where LSU and Florida are nowhere to be found.

The Rebels are 54-19 in the nearly six seasons since Kiffin was hired. LSU is 47-27 over that same stretch; the Gators are 36-38. At the very least, Kiffin has a nice head start if he sticks with Ole Miss.

It’s more than history and trophy cases, too. Kiffin has talked ad nauseam about how much he loves living in Oxford and coaching at Ole Miss — how it brought him closer to his family and bettered his lifestyle, hot yoga and all. Hubris and ambition may be tugging him elsewhere, in the same way those forces have helped fuel his current success. But he doesn’t have to leave to chase greatness. Or happiness.

If he goes to LSU or Florida, Kiffin will be expected to win and win big, on an increasingly shortened timeline. Or he can stay put — for similar financial rewards, with some established equity — while continuing to build a legacy at a place that will appreciate him in a way those other schools never could.

— Justin Williams

Penn State

In a state described as Philadelphia on one side and Pittsburgh on the other with a cold Mississippi in the middle, Kiffin could find himself right at home in central Pennsylvania. Despite Penn State’s 5-6 record, five of its losses have come by a combined 16 points. The Nittany Lions just need an offensive spark and an infusion of perimeter talent. Kiffin is good for both in directing the SEC’s top offense (493.8 yards per game) with a top-three SEC passing offense in five of the past six seasons.

In the bicoastal Big Ten, Kiffin can recruit everywhere to a Penn State program that has a regional base and a national profile. We know he would spice up Penn State’s non-rivalry rivalries with Ohio State and Michigan with snarky comments and subtle jabs. It would spill over to the football field (when they actually play) and we’d all reap the benefits of the weekly drama. Scott Frost tweaked coaches when he landed at Nebraska in 2017, but that’s nothing compared to the rise Kiffin would get from his Big Ten colleagues.

Even more, most coaches tend to fall in line behind the conference leadership, especially in the Big Ten. But if Lane disagrees with commissioner Tony Petitti, we’ll need a live “Kiffin Cam” to capture his facial expressions and knee-jerk reactions in league meetings

Seriously, James Franklin brought plenty of energy to Penn State, but his squad couldn’t meet the program’s high expectations. Kiffin has yet to attain Franklin’s consistency despite winning a head-to-head battle two years ago in the Peach Bowl, but there’s a feeling he could at a place like Penn State. If it happens, the road to victory in Happy Valley would become known as Life in the Fast Lane.

— Scott Dochterman

Lane Kiffin coached Tennessee in 2009 before abruptly leaving for USC. (Joe Murphy / Getty Images)

Tennessee Titans

Lane Kiffin’s departure from a job rarely has happened in what one would call a normal fashion.

Late Raiders owner Al Davis called him a liar on the way out the door. He was fired upon arrival at the airport after a road game by USC. His time as Alabama offensive coordinator came to an end the week before the Crimson Tide played a national title game.

But no ending was as volatile as his time as Tennessee’s head coach. Kiffin left in the middle of the night after one season to replace Pete Carroll at USC. Bolting set off protesters that included burning T-shirts and a mattress. He left as a villain. A traitor.

So why not go back?

Not to the Volunteers, but to Nashville to coach the Titans?

The hapless NFL team has had an opening for more than a month. As we noted, Kiffin has NFL experience. He was hired to coach the Raiders at the age of 31, making him one of the youngest coaches in league history.

It did not end well. He was 5-15 in two seasons.

The Athletic reported earlier this month that Kiffin’s success at Ole Miss had caught the attention of Titans brass though there has been no indication since that he is being pursued by the NFL team. But what if they swooped in and stole him away from all those SEC suitors, delivering all those fans Titans who also support the Vols the coach they already love to hate?

Kiffin has faced the Volunteers only once as a head coach, and of course it got weird. Ole Miss beat Tennessee 31-26 Knoxville in 2021, a game interrupted when fans responded to what they felt was some poor officiating by throwing objects on the field, including a golf ball Kiffin picked up and the infamous mustard bottle spotted after the game.

— Ralph D. Russo

Wild card destinations …

A colleague beat me to the joke in a Slack channel: Lane Kiffin, Las Vegas Raiders head coach?

I’m joking, but there’s a scenario in which Pete Carroll, who just turned 74, can’t turn around a storied franchise as quickly as he thought.

So as I am actually kinda sorta joking: Maybe Kiffin stays put with Ole Miss for another year and gets one of those massive contract extensions that makes the rounds on social media with numbers and dates that will never actually be realized.

Then Carroll retires again. Then Kiffin succeeds Carroll again. Just like he did at USC. And coaches the Raiders. Just like he did when he was the youngest NFL coach in history.

OK, the Raiders tangent can end now. Let’s entertain the real possibility that Kiffin decides that he’s made enough money, called enough plays and wants to invest in a chain of hot yoga studios around the South.

And instead of cryptic posts on social media from self-help books, Kiffin can just send out cryptic morning email blasts to those who have a membership. When you think of suits, you think of Burlington Coat Factory. No reason you can’t think of Kiffin’s yoga studios when you need to enter a flow state and sweat out the frustrations of your fandom.

He also maybe has a weekly hit on “The Pat McAfee Show” where they talk about who can hold Chaturanga in a 106-degree room? And they all clap in honor of those trying to push the envelope.

OK, now that that’s over. Let’s talk something potentially serious down the line, maybe as soon as 2026. Hear me out: What if the Alabama job becomes open?

— Christopher Kamrani