Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images
LSU gave Lane Kiffin plenty of incentive to abandon his job at Ole Miss, which included a clause in his contract that covered potential losses linked to the sale of the house he purchased after arriving in Oxford. However, it’s garnered some attention after a report suggested he overstated how much that dwelling cost him by over $1 million.
The dust is still settling in the wake of the series of events that led to Lane Kiffin abandoning an Ole Miss team that will have a new head coach when it competes in the College Football Playoff after the skipper defected to LSU a day after the Rebels capped off the regular season with a win over Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl.
Kiffin didn’t waste any time fleeing Oxford for Baton Rouge after the deal was finalized, and it seems very safe to assume he’ll be selling his home in the former after becoming a persona non grata in the college town where he’d resided since 2020.
The contract he signed with LSU was designed to help facilitate a sale by offering Kiffin some compensation if he ended up taking a loss on the property, but that seemingly minor detail has been thrust into the spotlight over what appears to be a fairly glaring discrepancy.
Lane Kiffin reportedly told LSU his house near Ole Miss cost much, much more than he actually paid for it
LSU will pay Kiffin $91 million over the course of the next seven seasons to fill the void that formed in the wake of Brian Kelly’s departure, and according to Sportico, the school sweetened the pot by agreeing to cover up to $500,000 in losses if the house their new skipper owns in Oxford ends up being sold for less than he paid for it.
Kiffin listed the purchase price of the home at $2.89 million, but the outlet’s Daniel Libit did some digging and found evidence that suggested the house in question, located near a golf course around three-and-a-half miles from Ole Miss, traded hands for $1.65 million when he bought it in 2021.
Libit reached out to the former owner, who confirmed that was the price Kiffin paid while noting he did also include some furniture that could have raised the total transaction by another $100,000. However, if that was the case, there’s still a difference of more than $1.1 million that’s unaccounted for.
Libet noted the house currently has an estimated value of around $2.4 million on Zillow, but it has not officially hit the market.
It is very hard to imagine Kiffin knowingly lied about the value of the house when you consider $500,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to what he’s slated to make at LSU. However, it’s also hard not to wonder what the explanation will end up being.