Ole Miss is having a remarkable season and is closing in on its first CFP appearance with a 10–1 mark heading into Friday’s Egg Bowl at Mississippi State. But the success has put a target on head coach Lane Kiffin, who has turned into the hottest coaching candidate in the SEC.

Kiffin is set to receive offers worth around $13 million to $14 million per year from LSU and Florida, according to On3. The offers are also expected to come with at least $25 million in NIL (name, image, and likeness) roster investment. 

CBS Sports reported that the Tigers, who are in the middle of a $53 million buyout dispute with former head coach Brian Kelly, are expected to offer a seven-year deal worth more than $98 million. That deal would mean a contract worth at least $14 million annually.

Kiffin’s Costly Crossroads

The 50-year-old coach could also choose to stay put, as Ole Miss is expected to offer him a similar deal. If Kiffin leaves for Florida or LSU, he would have to pay a $4 million fee to Ole Miss. 

Kiffin, who took over at Ole Miss in 2020, has four years remaining on a deal that pays him $9 million annually. He currently is the 10th-highest-paid college football coach in the country, but a deal averaging around $13 million annually would put him around the same range as Georgia’s Kirby Smart, the highest-paid coach in the land.

Denials, Deadlines, and Drama

Speculation about Kiffin’s decision heightened last week when it was reported that his family was seen visiting the campuses of the two conference rivals in Baton Rouge and Gainesville. Multiple outlets also reported that Kiffin was expected to decide on his future before the Egg Bowl after he was given the game as a deadline by Ole Miss AD Keith Carter. 

But Kiffin denied the reports Tuesday while appearing on The Pat McAfee Show.

“That’s absolutely not true,” Kiffin said. “There’s been no ultimatum or anything like that at all. So, I don’t know where that came from, like a lot of stuff that comes out there. We’re having a blast. I love it here.”

Carter, however, said Friday that an announcement on Kiffin’s future will come the day after the Rebels play their in-state rivals.

Paige Bueckers will get a top running mate in Dallas.

The Dallas Wings will receive the No. 1 pick for the second year in a row after winning the WNBA draft lottery Sunday. The Wings had the best odds to win the lottery (42%) after finishing with the worst cumulative record over the last two seasons.

Dallas selected Paige Bueckers with the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft despite months of speculation that the UConn star was looking to pull an Eli Manning so she could play for another franchise. Bueckers finished as the 2025 Rookie of the Year and was named an All-Star starter, but the Wings still finished in a tie with the Sky for the worst record in the WNBA (10–34).

The Wings, who hired new head coach Jose Fernandez from South Florida last month, have the opportunity to pair Bueckers with Azzi Fudd, her college teammate and girlfriend, a consensus top-five pick who is projected No. 4 in ESPN’s 2026 WNBA mock draft. Ahead of Fudd are Spanish center Awa Fam, UCLA big Lauren Betts, and TCU guard Olivia Miles.

The 2026 draft is scheduled for Monday, April 13. 

The WNBA draft lottery includes five teams, with the odds determined by their cumulative record over the last two seasons. The first two picks are selected by the lottery, while picks three to five are awarded to the remaining teams according to the worst cumulative record.

The draft lottery results:

• 1st: Dallas Wings
• 2nd: Minnesota Lynx  
• 3rd: Seattle Storm
• 4th: Washington Mystics
• 5th: Chicago Sky

The lottery did not actually alter the order of selection this year, as Wings and Lynx had the two best odds of winning. 

Minnesota will receive the No. 2 pick despite finishing with the WNBA’s best record last season and making the finals two years ago. They received the pick from the Sky after a series of trades that ended in the Sky acquiring the No. 11 pick from the Lynx in last year’s draft, which they used to select Hailey Van Lith. 

However, Chicago was still in Sunday’s lottery after acquiring a pick from the Connecticut Sun in a trade that sent Marina Mabrey to Connecticut.

The Storm, who also made last year’s playoffs, received the No. 3 pick from the Sparks through a three-team trade last offseason that sent Kelsey Plum to Los Angeles and former Seattle star Jewell Loyd to Las Vegas.

The Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, two expansion franchises that will join the WNBA in the 2026 season, will have the sixth and seventh picks in the draft. The exact order between the two teams will be decided by a coin flip at a later date.

But the 2026 WNBA season is in jeopardy as the league and its players’ association have yet to agree to a new collective bargaining agreement. The two sides have until Nov. 30 to agree to a new deal, a deadline that was extended late last month.

A postrace penalty at the Las Vegas Grand Prix has revived the Formula One drivers’ championship battle with two races left in the season—and in ESPN’s domestic media rights deal.

In F1’s final U.S. race on ESPN, Max Verstappen won the Las Vegas GP late Saturday night over championship leader Lando Norris, who finished second. Verstappen originally cut into Norris’s lead by 7 points, but hours after the finish, Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri were disqualified after both their McLaren cars were found in violation of technical regulations.

Before the Las Vegas race weekend, Verstappen was trailing Norris by 49 points and would have been mathematically eliminated if Norris outscored him by at least nine points. He now trails Norris by 24 points and is also tied with Piastri for second in the standings.

Drivers’ championship standings:

• Lando Norris: 390
• Oscar Piastri: 366
• Max Verstappen: 366

There are just two more full races (Qatar and Abu Dhabi) and one sprint race (Qatar) remaining on the calendar. A race winner is awarded 25 points, while a sprint race winner takes home 8 points, meaning a maximum of 58 points can still be scored by a single driver. 

Verstappen, who is chasing his fifth consecutive drivers’ championship, which would tie F1 legend Michael Schumacher for the racing series’s longest world title streak, can take the championship lead if he replicates the results of Las Vegas in Qatar. 

When It Was This Close Before

It’s the first time since the controversial finish in 2021 that the drivers’ championship has yet to be clinched before the final two races. That bodes well for ESPN’s viewership for the last two races. The 2025 season is averaging 1.3 million viewers through 21 races, up 17% compared to last year. (Las Vegas GP viewership numbers have yet to be released.)

ESPN viewership plateaued in the previous two seasons, but has benefited this year from Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel measurement and a close world championship battle. 
A strong finish would be a parting gift for ESPN and F1’s partnership, which started in 2018 in a deal that was originally worth about $5 million per year. F1 is set to move to Apple TV next year in a deal worth a reported $700 million over five years.