Abrupt team changes are a great chance to learn

College is where you go to learn a lot of things, and sometimes while there you also go to class. It’s the life lessons that tend to stick with you most.

With that in mind, we’re going to turn to the “sport” of college football as a backdrop for yet another illustration of how the world actually works. Coach Lane Kiffin has once again transitioned between programs in the most Kiffin way possible, quitting Ole Miss on the cusp of a serious playoff run and joining perhaps their most hated rival.  

While officially that is their in-state rival in Starkville, it is LSU that keeps tweaking Ole Miss’s basket of insecurities.  Now they’ve stolen the “hot” head coach, branded Oxford a place you go as a stepping stone, and made the Ole Miss faithful question if they’re really going to be able to maintain their program in an arms race that seems clear to elevate a select few to an uber-elite tier.

Here we have a clash between those who view college football based on nostalgia, tradition, part of an educational experience, funded by donations and those who continue to demonstrate that college football is a multi-billion dollar business.  Those on the side of big business are running up the score like they were John Heisman coaching against Cumberland.

Protecting the façade of amateur athletics, however, is part of the business model.  Thus, those taking the bag and running still have to pretend that tradition, loyalty, and commitment are important.  This demonstration is often served as a heavy handed dose of false piety.  

Note Kiffin’s comments shortly after winning the Egg Bowl last Friday.  Despite the decision not only to leave having already been made – something that is now clear given that he had already lined up most of his coaching staff to abruptly leave with him – he noted that he was going to have to pray about it, as well as talk to two coaching legends, invoking Pete Carroll’s relationship with his dad.  

Heartwarming. For about 36 hours.

Kiffin’s exit laid bare the realities of the new business model. There was a bit of a standoff as he seemed to expect if not demand that he be allowed to continue to coach his current team while beginning recruiting efforts for his new team. Many of those recruits are likely currently wearing Ole Miss uniforms or have stated their intention to be in Oxford next fall.  

In hindsight, hiring Kiffin was a roll of the dice.  He had a defined history of abrupt and aggravating exits. His dithering a few years ago on staying with Ole Miss – then getting a much bigger contract to stay – is seen as a distraction for another good year that came apart at the end. One could say they knew what they were getting into when he was chosen to be the one to elevate the program.  A business decision, if you will.

The fake piety doesn’t land just on the head of the coaches and schools who hire them. Sports journalists too are dragging out their fainting couches and doing their best pearl clutches. The very networks who have pumped billions into this “amateur” sport are doing their best to be shocked, SHOCKED!, that a brazen money grab for scarce elite coaching talent could take place.  

If you look at the above scenarios, you can extrapolate these hard earned life lessons from college into daily adult life. The parallels to politics are clear.

We have our teams. There’s a lot of nostalgia involved. We tell ourselves our team is the good guys; those hated rivals are backwards idiots who don’t know how the world works and should apologize for even existing.  Just seeing their jerseys makes us mad.

Yet deep down we know most of it is just business. The more we dig in to our side, the bigger the business grows.  And of course, we have media and influencers doing their best to make sure we stay “engaged” – which means angry.

The major players make sure to play along with fake piety, too, so that we can continue to pretend.  So many contemplations begin with “after much consideration and prayer” right before we are told that God wants the politicians to do what elevates them the highest and quickest. 

But then, sometimes our coaches change teams, abruptly. Whether they do a 180 on an issue (see Ukraine and Israel) turn on the leader of their own party (see Green, Marjorie Taylor) or change parties altogether (see Duncan, Geoff), the fans too have to decide if they stay or if they go.

The hard lessons are the ones that stick with you. Sometimes they make you look inward, and make sure you’re supporting the right team, for the right reasons.  Other times they make you realize you got caught up in the desire to win, but lost what you were fighting for along the way.