Why didn't Ole Miss let Lane Kiffin coach CFP? Answer should be obvious

• LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry says he can't fault Ole Miss for not letting Lane Kiffin coach in playoff.
• Ausberry supported Kiffin's desires to coach Ole Miss in playoff. That would've been 'a posterboard for LSU.'
• Ole Miss forced Kiffin to pick: LSU or coach the playoff. He picked LSU.

BATON ROUGE, LA – Two questions dominated the college football zeitgeist last November.

Question 1: What will Lane do?

Question 2: If Lane Kiffin took another job, would Mississippi still let him coach the Rebels in the playoff?

We learned the answers. Kiffin picked the LSU job. And, much to Kiffin’s chagrin, Mississippi athletic director Keith Carter did not allow LSU’s new coach to lead the Rebels in the playoff.

LSU told Kiffin it was good with him coaching the Rebels in the playoff if Ole Miss was good with it.

Ole Miss wasn’t good with it.

Kiffin didn’t like that decision, but “I understand that decision,” he told me.

What if the shoe had been on the other foot?

Stay with me here. Consider this:

In an alternate reality, if LSU’s coach had wanted to take the Mississippi job but still coach the Tigers in the playoff, would LSU have allowed it?

We don’t have to wonder about this hypothetical. We could just ask LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry. So, I did ask.

“I’d probably be like, ‘Nah, we ain’t doing that. No,’” Ausberry told USA TODAY Sports. “But, that hand wasn’t dealt.”

You heard that right. If the situation had been reversed, and LSU’s coach wanted to turn heel for Mississippi, LSU would’ve done what Ole Miss did.

LSU would have said, there’s the door.

“If I’m Ole Miss, I probably would’ve made the same decision,” Ausberry said. “I know LSU would’ve made the same decision. I don’t blame anybody.”

Nothing trumps the Egg Bowl for Ole Miss, but the Magnolia Bowl comes second. Other than Mississippi State, Ole Miss has no bigger rival than LSU. The states share a border, and Kiffin crossed over to the other side.

Ausberry said Kiffin coaching his old team in the playoff would’ve been “a posterboard for LSU,” and he supported Kiffin’s desires to keep coaching.

And, let’s not kid ourselves, it would’ve been a posterboard for Kiffin, too.

Ole Miss passed on that poster and let Pete Golding and Trinidad Chambliss move into the spotlight.

It became the second time in less than 30 years Ole Miss lost a coach to an SEC rival.

Tommy Tuberville once said the only way he'd leave Ole Miss was in a pine box.

Epic quote. Also, a lie.

Tuberville left two days later, on a jet, for Auburn.

Would LSU football ever lose a head coach to Ole Miss?

It’s hard to fathom such a situation.

Ole Miss elevated under Kiffin, spurred along by pay-for-play and transfer freedom. It just went to the CFP semifinals. LSU just went 7-6. Still, most within the industry view LSU as the superior job, even though the gap between the jobs is smaller than it used to be.

Kiffin’s exit, with Ole Miss on the playoff’s doorstep, tells you how he evaluated the two jobs.

“Someone said to me, … ‘If Ole Miss fired their head football coach and the job was open, and the LSU coach was winning, would Ole Miss ever think to pick up the phone and call the LSU head coach? No. They’d be like, there’s no way he’s going, right? There’s no way the LSU coach is going there,’” Kiffin said.

Ausberry is of the mind that “the system,” and not any one individual, is to blame for a coach taking a new job and leaving before the playoff.

“(The calendar) is not his fault,” Ausberry said. “If we want to change the system, change the whole system. Go to an NFL model (and say) we can’t talk to a coach ‘til the end of the year.”

The NFL operates under one shield as a singular league with league policies.

College football operates as a dog-eat-dog world.

“Every school that was after him would’ve (hired) him at the same time,” Ausberry said. “We were the ones who told him, ‘Coach your team.’”

Ole Miss said, get out, and Ausberry won't fault them for that.

This is the continuation of a multi-part series on Lane Kiffin at LSU. Check out other stories here, here and here. More coverage to follow.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.