The Auburn Tigers are one of the infamous one-year wonders in history because of the circumstances surrounding the team's 2010/2011 BCS National Championship season. In situations where an all-in play to win a championship arise, the last Tigers title team is a popular example of why moving all the chips to the middle of the table is worth it.
Go to Auburn and pop into one of the establishments by campus, and you'll likely see photos and murals of Cam Newton and Gene Chizik holding the Waterford Crystal football trophy. Newton has a forever invite back to the Plains, and he even has a statue outside Jordan-Hare Stadium.
No one would say going all in that year wasn't worth it. Ditto for anything Connor Stalions related with the Michigan Wolverines. The Maize and Blue won a 2023/2024 CFP title in Jim Harbaugh's final year in Ann Arbor, and it was clear all season that it was now or never for Michigan.
In 2025, the Ole Miss Rebels are in a drastically different, yet still similar situation. At 11-1, there's a strong likelihood that the Rebs are CFP-bound, but head coach Lane Kiffin is leaving for the LSU Tigers in the offseason. Some believe that Kiffin should not coach Ole Miss under any circumstances, but Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde sees it differently.
Forde believes any fanbase should consider going all-in like the Rebs have the chance to, and cited Auburn and Michigan as examples of teams that will never regret their own successful one-year pushes for glory.
He also feels now is the time for such a decision to make sense because of the transfer portal.
"Would keeping Kiffin on for a playoff run be messy and potentially problematic? Yes. He could spend those weeks working on players he’d like to take with him to LSU, potentially fleecing the Rebels’ roster. He might be only half-in on the job, as he was as the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2016 when he’d been named the head coach at Florida Atlantic. Nick Saban was so unimpressed with Kiffin’s work in the CFP semifinal against Washington that he fired him before the final, sending him on his way early to Boca Raton, Fla.," Forde wrote.
"But if he’s dialed in on a title pursuit, Ole Miss should let him do it. Winning a national title is a forever thing, especially at a school that isn’t perennially in the mix. Ask Auburn fans if the school’s one year with Cam Newton was worth the downturn that followed. Ask Michigan if the 2023 title with Jim Harbaugh was more important than an 8–5 ’24 and a 9–3 ’25.
"If fully going for it winds up costing the Rebels in ’26 and beyond, O.K. Worrying about the future—recruiting and the portal—instead of doing everything possible to win here and now would be misplaced priorities. And frankly, in the current landscape, rosters can be replenished at warp speed."
Ole Miss should let Lane Kiffin coach CFP for the players
Ole Miss winning it all with Kiffin, after announcing he was leaving for an SEC rival in proximity, would be quite the return to national relevancy for the Rebs. Obviously, it'd be a gamble that could result in Kiffin bringing all his guys to Baton Rouge and leaving Ole Miss high and dry.
But Trinidad Chambliss deserves the chance to be Oxford's Cam Newton. Those players deserve a chance to do something no team has done in the Sip since the JFK administration.
Even if it means working with someone like Kiffin, who's made it clear what he thinks of the university and the fanbase.