"I feel for people that are trying to prepare for a bowl game that have their significant players going to other teams before they even play," Kiffin said Tuesday.

After throwing 26 passing touchdowns at Duke to set a single-season program record, quarterback Maalik Murphy entered the transfer portal. Other teams with more consequential postseason games are experiencing the same thing. Penn State backup quarterback Beau Pribula announced he was entering the transfer portal before the Nittany Lions host SMU in the College Football Playoff.

The moves are byproducts of what Kiffin called a bad system. Because the transfer portal window opened on Dec. 9, many players have to make a choice between finishing out their season or looking out for their future.

"We just saw someone go in in the playoffs," Kiffin said. "A backup quarterback. Wrap your head around that. If you ever saw that in professional sports."

For starters, Kiffin likes the suggestion of removing the December portal window and letting everything play out in the spring window, which goes from April 16-25 of next year.

"I've heard that discussed, and some coaches for that," Kiffin said. "I think there would be a lot of good to that."

There are problems with that, though, that Kiffin acknowledges. Players would be stuck at schools they don't want to be at, and they would be practicing with a team they don't intend to play for.

Kiffin said a middle ground could be moving the spring window up, but that ultimately there are no easy solutions to curb the in-season portal chaos.

"There's some really good parts about (making the only portal window open in the spring)," Kiffin said. "There's some issues there."