The ongoing Lane Kiffin coaching carousel drama is hitting its final arc, as the Ole Miss coach is expected to announce his decision today on whether he’ll stay with the Rebels or take a massive alleged 7 years $90-100 million at LSU. On top of that, the Alabama–Auburn matchup is making the situation even more complicated.

Lane Kiffin’s future as the Ole Miss football coach is uncertain. He recently met with Ole Miss officials for several hours to discuss whether he would stay with the team or leave to coach at LSU. During the meeting, Kiffin talked with Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter and the school’s chancellor, Glenn Boyce. The discussion lasted more than three hours, but Kiffin did not commit to staying at Ole Miss. People close to the situation think this shows he wants to leave for LSU.

ESPN’s Marty Smith reported that Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter finished their meeting about an hour and a half ago. People in Oxford now feel like Kiffin might be planning to leave because he still hasn’t committed to staying. According to Smith, if Kiffin truly wanted to remain at Ole Miss, he would’ve already said it clearly. After the meeting, the deputy AD Eric Adams was seen heading to the facility during Alabama’s halftime. Not a good sign for the Rebels.

According to Marty, Ole Miss folks say Lane Kiffin’s meeting the team at 9 a.m. Sunday, and he’s finally dropping his decision sometime then. LSU started seriously pursuing Kiffin about a week ago. They offered him a seven-year contract worth over $90 million, plus extra guaranteed money for his roster. This would make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the country and a big catch for LSU, especially since Ole Miss is a rival team in the SEC.

LSU believes Kiffin has agreed to become their next coach, but he wants to finish coaching Ole Miss in the postseason first. This desire to stay temporarily at Ole Miss is slowing down the official move to LSU. The Baton Rogue even made plans to send planes to bring Kiffin and his family to Baton Rouge once everything is finalized.

Even though Kiffin has spoken with LSU and seems interested, he hasn’t signed a contract extension with Ole Miss. The whole “Lane Kiffin coaching carousel” saga is basically a soap opera playing out in college football right now. Everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting to see if he’ll stay at Ole Miss for its first ever playoffs. The comes down to the Iron Bowl.

The last hurdle

The main sticking point is Kiffin apparently wants to coach his current team in any bowl games or the SEC Championship, even if he’s officially an LSU guy by then, which is a wild request that Ole Miss isn’t too keen on. A huge part of this complicated situation depended on the outcome of the Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Alabama held a 20-13 lead and was likely going to win. If Auburn had managed an upset, Ole Miss would have gone to the SEC title game, making Kiffin’s demand a real issue. The game could go either way, but as of now, the drama continues into Sunday morning with Kiffin yet to formally announce his decision and the college football world waiting on the final chapter of this saga.

According to Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, Ole Miss might have just gotten the bad news they were hoping to avoid. He reported that LSU officials and Lane Kiffin’s representatives had another call after LSU’s game at Oklahoma to keep working on the deal and even discussed travel plans. LSU is ‘reportedly sending two planes to Oxford on Sunday for Kiffin, his family and others’. This has everyone wondering what Kiffin will do, but most people now believe he’s likely heading to LSU.