Mississippi football coach Lane Kiffin speaks with ESPN reporter Marty Smith before his team's game against Mississippi State at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field.

The college football coaching carousel is in the midst of its busiest period. The 48 hours after most teams' regular seasons end is usually the most overwhelming part of the whole carousel cycle. From Lane Kiffin to Alex Golesh to Mark Stoops to Bob Chesney, the game of musical chairs is rolling along. Coaches are trying to find the right seats before plot twists take away their ideal options.

We don't need to walk around or avoid the biggest carousel story in America: Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss and will not coach the Rebels in the playoff as a consequence of taking the LSU job. Of course, we know the matter is unique because Kiffin is leaving one SEC school for a rival and direct competitor. That usually doesn't happen. It's different from Bob Chesney potentially coaching James Madison in the CFP before landing at UCLA. Yet, the differences coexist with obvious and real similarities. It's funny how some coaching moves don't elicit controversies while others create firestorms, such as Kiffin.

One thing we all should agree on: This is not a good or healthy way to run a business in which billions of dollars are spent by American university athletic departments.

Coaches have been driving the bus

The sport of college football has been accommodating coaches regarding the calendar of the full year. Why do coaches want this December schedule? They want to get their players in the fold early in the offseason and have as much time coaching up players as they can before the next season.

Enrollment schedules

College football would seemingly benefit from one spring portal, but that goes against the coaches' wishes to have players in early winter and get maximum time with them before the next season. With schools needing to enroll incoming transfers in January for the new semester, this is why the portal has been in December.

Coaches have to be put in their place

If coaches have wanted the college football calendar to be this way, the simple response to them has to be simple and forceful: Shut up. You don't run the sport. You have to deal with basic limitations. This is what a sport with actual leadership would look like.

Honesty and maturity need to enter this process

Let's all be adults. Grownups can admit basic truths, even if they sound unpleasant. The brutal, honest truth of college football is that it's an entertainment business. Let's stop the pretense that this is about academics and a holistic education. In a billion-dollar business, structures should facilitate smooth business operations, not the clown car college football has become.

No good business would be run this way

It's very simple: College football should not be structured such that coaches can leave teams they coached in the regular season before the College Football Playoff. We'll get to Lane Kiffin in a moment, but imagine if there were these things called rules and policies that simply didn't allow this kind of scenario to be possible? Maybe it would be a good idea to do that. If coaches don't like it, tough.

It's time for adults to enter the room. They have been absent until now. Maybe the Kiffin saga forces the sport to collectively wake up.

Lane Kiffin being immature doesn't mean the calendar is fine

Is Lane Kiffin immature? Yes. Is he a trollish, combative, selfish figure who wants it all and doesn't deal well with limitations or stipulations? Yes. He is not the good guy. No one is seriously arguing that point. However, rules are good because they give structure to systems and organizations, so that people who like to live in the gray areas and test how much they can get away with are put in a box and aren't in positions where they tempt and tease others and hold schools hostage. Adults put rules in place so that schemers such as Kiffin can't make end runs around them. It's time for college football to do that.

Coaching transfer portal window

There's a player transfer portal window. It's time for a coaching transfer portal window. The most obvious idea for this is January 2, after the New Year's Day bowl games and the playoff quarterfinals. Only four teams -- and coaches -- will still be active by then, and those coaches would not be able to seek jobs until after the playoff semifinals one week later.

January should be the month when coaching changes and transactions occur. Adults would recognize this and put rules in place. Given that players can already transfer out of programs 30 days after a coaching change is made, this would essentially create a January transfer window for all players.

It makes total sense and needs to happen.

What about player enrollment in January for the new semester?

We already mentioned that coaches want the current college football calendar so that they can have their players in January, basically when the offseason begins, as opposed to late spring. This is where schools and their enrollment departments simply have to adjust, and grownups need to create flexibility in this process.

The idea that a school must enroll athletes by a specific date relative to the start of an academic quarter or semester is outdated. The idea that an enrollment deadline can't be pushed back or treated with some degree of flexibility seems obsolete and not a fit for a modern age with all its economic incentives and pressures.

This is an entertainment business. Again, let's not pretend all of this should serve education. Constant transfers from one school to another are not about degrees or fields of study. This flood of movement happens because players want to get paid, expose themselves to different coaching styles, and be best-positioned for NFL careers. Let's not pretend enrollment deadlines are an impossible, fixed obstacle.

The concept could not be simpler

It's really very simple: Let coaches coach their teams as long as the season -- the playoff -- is going on. After New Year's Day, coaching free agency and corresponding player movement can begin. This would obviously make the most sense for the business of college football. Coaches should not be caught between coaching in the playoff or finding a new job. None of this should be concurrent.

If college football can't figure this out, the sport does not deserve to succeed. As it is, the sport is killing itself with this December insanity. The calendar has to be changed, and coaches just need to swallow and take their medicine for once.

Lane Kiffin postscript at LSU

The governor of Louisiana railed about financial irresponsibility in Brian Kelly's contract, but LSU is giving Lane Kiffin a massive sweetheart deal. When various leaders and administrators aren't willing to practice what they preach and act like grown-ups, the tut-tutting about enrollment deadlines and other supposedly sacred traditions becomes that much more hollow and meaningless.

If adults exist in college football leadership, they will put an end to this madness and run a billion-dollar business the right way.

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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: College football coaches wanted this calendar, but it's not realistic

Reporting by Matt Zemek, College Sports Wire / College Sports Wire

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