SEC Media Days wrapped up Thursday in Nashville following press conferences from Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer and Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel. The trio, among the more entertaining in the SEC, hit on various national topics, but none caught more attention than Lane Kiffin’s discussion of Name, Image and Likeness policies.

Here’s what we learned on Day 4 of SEC Media Days.

The “State of the Union” is … uncertain?

Lane Kiffin was the star of the show Thursday. His main act? NIL. But you probably knew that would happen. The subject dominated his press conference, and Kiffin provided the most insightful opinions on NIL of the whole week in Nashville.

Before even taking questions, Kiffin gave what he called his “state of the union” on college football and in doing so, called NIL and its impact on the transfer portal “free agency.”

“I mean, I was just thinking on the plane ride over here: What if you had that in other sports,” Kiffin said. “Tom Brady, A’Jai Wilson, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, what if every year those guys can opt to free agency, twice a year, really and they have no long-term contracts? Basically everybody is not even on a one-month contract because they can leave in two windows. It’s created a lot of issues and roster changes.”

That said, Kiffin wants to and has taken advantage of this system — especially with transfer quarterbacks like Spencer Sanders — even if he doesn’t like. Kiffin said the current system is “poor” and is “going to get worse.”

Then questions came.

Kiffin was asked about the richest and most aggressive boosters at different schools able to use their power to get better players, and if he could say where Ole Miss boosters ranked within the SEC.

“I am not about to start putting rankings out on boosters from top to bottom in the conference,” Kiffin said. “God, I want to so bad, though.”

“It’s pay-for-play,” Kiffin added.

Kiffin’s NIL conversation touched on other topics including players knowing what others make within the locker room and avoiding tension as a result as well as a possible “revenue sharing pot.”

Yet while Kiffin spoke about many of the problems he sees, he wasn’t entirely sure how to fix them.

“I tell our staff, I don’t like you to tell me the problem but not the solution,” Kiffin said. “So I feel like that in this one; that I don’t have the exact solution because it is so complicated.”

Josh Heupel briefly discusses Tennessee NCAA sanctions

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel could have had a contentious press conference. Following an investigation into former Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt, the NCAA imposed multi-million-dollar fines, vacated wins and took away scholarships from the program. The sanctions did not include any postseason ban.

Heupel was not with Tennessee when the violations under Pruitt occurred, but the program figurehead’s press conference served as the first media availability for Tennesseee after the news of the penalties broke.

Heupel briefly discussed the sanctions during his opening statement and was only asked once about it by reporters.

In his opening statement, Heupel said when he took the Tennessee job, he did so knowing an investigation was looming over him.

“I said in a room just like this two years ago that it would be a speed bump for the program, our football program,” Heupel said. “And a few days ago, we found out that that certainly was the case.”

But when he was asked later about it, Heupel said it was “unbelievably satisfying to get over that hump.”

“You’re not dealing with unknowns now, not dealing with other programs that are beating you up in some way sensationalizing what’s going to happen,” Heupel said.

The Sooners are coming, and the connections are strong

Before taking the head coaching job at South Carolina, Shane Beamer worked as an associate head coach and tight ends coach at Oklahoma. Heupel was a star quarterback for the Sooners on their 2000 BCS national championship team.

The ever-approaching addition of Oklahoma and Texas into the SEC next fall has been a consistent topic throughout the week in Nashville. Both coaches were asked about their own connections to the Sooners.

“I think they are certainly ready,” Beamer said. “Certainly this league is different. Lines of scrimmage are different. Beyond the field, just the stadiums — when I was talking about in my opening statement about this league, it’s one thing I love about this conference, just the stadiums you get to go into every single Saturday. I saw a stat the other day where the SEC led the country in average attendance per game and it wasn’t even close to the rest of the conferences.”

Heupel will get to take his team to Oklahoma in 2024 in a Norman homecoming. But jokingly Heupel said he wished the Sooners had to come to Neyland Stadium first.

“I have got nothing but great memories of the people and my time there,” Heupel said. “Looking forward to that opportunity. That’s a long ways down the road, man. Focused on ‘23, but that will be a unique day in my career, obviously to go back there.”

Opening Statement Word Count

Ah yes, the moment of truth you’ve all been waiting for: Which coach gave the longest filibuster before taking questions? Using the transcriptions provided for media members, Georgia’s Kirby Smart was the runaway winner.

1. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart: 2,649
2. South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer: 2,175
3. Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz: 1,977
4. Alabama head coach Nick Saban: 1,853
5. Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher: 1,751
6. Florida head coach Billy Napier: 1,646
7. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin: 1,494
8. Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman: 1,274
9. Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops: 1,206
10. Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel: 1,152
11. Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett: 816
12. Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea: 684
13. Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze: 665
14. LSU head coach Brian Kelly: 606