Lane Kiffin actually went through with it. Three weeks before a team with a 99 percent chance of reaching the College Football Playoff was set to compete, he walked away. And by doing so, he may have changed the already chaotic landscape of college football in a way that cannot be reversed.

It took only one hyper-impatient program — LSU, whose coaching search has essentially been overseen by the state’s governor — and one coach with a track record of dramatic exits to create a new, troubling precedent. LSU refused to wait for the season to end; Kiffin refused to stay. The fallout is now reshaping expectations everywhere.

From here forward, fans will pressure their schools to remove lame-duck coaches earlier than ever in order to gain an edge in hiring. University administrators will feel compelled to demand answers from coaching candidates immediately, fearing that waiting even a few days could cost them the next big name. And coaches eyeing their next opportunity now have a convenient excuse to depart without finishing what they started, even if their current teams are on the edge of historic success. Some can even send their families ahead on private jets to scout out their future homes.

The situation has become so distorted that certain voices at ESPN tried to paint Ole Miss as the antagonist for refusing to let a departing head coach — one leaving for an SEC rival, no less — stay through the Playoff run. As if any school would keep a coach in the building while he prepares to take players and staff with him once the season ends.

Athletic director Keith Carter instead made a swift decision: he elevated defensive coordinator Pete Golding to become the Rebels’ next permanent head coach. But Kiffin, known for dramatic exits, immediately took several Ole Miss assistants with him to LSU as well. Now Ole Miss must prepare for a Playoff game with a patchwork staff more reminiscent of a lower-tier bowl appearance than the most important moment in program history.

This is not an outcome anyone wants. Not the schools, not the players, and certainly not the coaches themselves. But no one is stepping in to stop it. Curiously, the same decision-makers who refuse to regulate coaching behavior are working overtime to restrict the athletes’ ability to make their own choices.

In the long list of contradictions that define college sports, this episode ranks among the most striking.

Earlier this fall, the NCAA approved a revised transfer portal calendar, merging the winter and spring periods into a single 15-day window from January 2 to 15. The official purpose was to prevent players from entering the portal before their teams’ seasons conclude. Yet the irony is impossible to ignore: while athletes are being restricted, coaches can walk away at any moment, even when a championship opportunity is on the line.

The inconsistency doesn’t stop there. Before this new policy, athletes had 30 days to enter the portal following a coaching change. Now that window has been cut to 15 days — and it doesn’t begin until five full days after a new coach is officially hired. Essentially, Kiffin can start working at LSU immediately, but the Ole Miss players he left behind must sit idle until the school finishes its hiring process and then wait an additional week before gaining the freedom to explore their own futures.

It would be comedic if it weren’t so damaging.

Kiffin’s defenders argue that the sport’s calendar is to blame — early signing day, the January transfer window, and the expanded Playoff all create scheduling pressure. But other programs have handled their transitions differently. Oklahoma State and Florida hired coaches from Group of 5 programs and are allowing those coaches to continue leading their current teams if they secure a conference title and reach the CFP. That level of cooperation is impossible in this case. LSU and Ole Miss compete annually. They pursue the same recruits. Allowing Kiffin to stay through the Playoff would be like Pepsi letting an employee who has already accepted a job at Coke keep access to its internal systems for another month.

There is only one structural solution: conferences could adopt rules preventing schools from hiring each other’s coaches before the end of the season, similar to regulations in the NFL. Ideally, all conferences would adopt such guidelines together. But in college sports, standardizing anything across leagues is nearly impossible — and likely to draw antitrust concerns.

Yet Congress may soon change the equation. The long-discussed SCORE Act is expected to reach the House floor next week and will likely pass if it receives a vote. Among its provisions is an antitrust exemption that would allow conferences and the NCAA to set certain rules without constant fear of lawsuits. If they wanted to, they could establish a dedicated hiring window for coaches — perhaps between February 1 and March 1 — that falls after bowl season and before spring practice. They could even limit the amount of guaranteed money schools throw into contracts, which currently forces universities to pay tens of millions to buy out failed hires.

But realistically, none of that is coming. The primary goal of the law is to restrict NIL spending and curb player mobility, not regulate coaching behavior. It is aimed at shutting down scenarios where, say, a player leaves one SEC school for another during the season for an outrageous compensation package.

Meanwhile, the timing of Kiffin’s departure highlights just how absurd the current system has become. The College Football Playoff should not operate like an optional event for coaches. Ole Miss should never have faced the impossible choice between keeping a departing head coach or scrambling to elevate his defensive coordinator days before the biggest game in program history.

But this is the world college football has designed for itself. And unless real reform takes place, Kiffin certainly will not be the last coach to make such a move — especially as the Playoff expands and the calendar grows even more complicated.