The Green Bay Packers And Ole Miss Football? Lane Kiffin Notices A Similar Trait Between Both Fanbases And It's Centered Around NIL

Not one to mince his words regarding NIL, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin once again hit the nail on the head when it comes to the current landscape in Oxford. In his remarks this week on fundraising, Kiffin compared the school's fundraising efforts to the Green Bay Packers, which wasn't much of a stretch.

Two years after NIL was introduced, college football teams around the country are still working on ways to capitalize off the fundraising instrument. From a monetization standpoint, collectives are still the main focus for getting athletes to potentially sign with a school.

But we've also seen countless schools struggle to convince donors, or the regular fan to buy-in to the system. This is one of the reasons why the 'Grove Collective' decided to launch a seven-day fundraiser campaign, hoping to raise $3 million, which would certainly help their NIL efforts.

These efforts included a livestream on the Ole Miss athletics YouTube page, with cameos from coaches in all sports, including Lane Kiffin. In what looked more like a telethon you'd see on TV, Kiffin pointed out how fans could have an ownership of the team.

"An awesome community, not the huge city like some of these other places, or enrollments. But a fanbase that comes together and really owns the team," Kiffin noted. "And that's really what this is, because we're not going anywhere without our fans and donors."

Sound familiar?

It should remind you of the Green Bay Packers, who allow fans to buy a stake in the team, which is where Kiffin is drawing a correlation with Ole Miss.

Lane Kiffin Compared The Rebels NIL To Green Bay Packers

He's not wrong in his comparison, especially considering his team needs all the financial help they can get from fundraising. If someone donates to the Ole Miss collective, they are essentially helping the football program bring in players, or retain their roster.

It seems as though the fundraiser worked, with the 'Grove Collective' announcing it had raised $1.7 million in one day. That number is massive for the future of Ole Miss athletics, especially when other Power-5 schools are not having a problem putting together lucrative offers for prospects.

In terms of the fundraising efforts and fans being a part of the program by giving, Kiffin noted how similar it is to the Packers organization having team shareholders.

“Extremely encouraged. You guys know by covering me that I’m very real on the good, bad, and the ugly. It’s been awesome what the collective’s done, what Walker Jones has done," Kiffin noted. "Ole Miss is kinda like the Gren Bay Packers of college football, especially the SEC. Not the biggest town, not the most alumni. To come together like they have makes me think of Green Bay how fans are shareholders of the team.

"Without that, we're not going anywhere. I don't care how great assistant coaches you have, who your head coach is. You don't have this, you don't have resources, you don't win."

Once again, Lane Kiffin makes a great point about the current landscape of NIL in college football and how fans can become an integral part of the team, even outside the stadium.