The Lane Kiffin saga has been the talk of the sports world this week as the sixth-year Ole Miss coach is reportedly the No. 1 target for the open head coaching jobs at both Florida and LSU. The debate about what Kiffin should do continued Wednesday morning on ESPN‘s First Take, where firebrand host Stephen A. Smith took a clear shot at Oxford, Miss., while suggesting the Rebels coach should go elsewhere.

“He’s in Oxford, Mississippi. OK? Let’s get this out of the way, now listen ladies and gentlemen — and y’all can’t say it … leave it to me, I’ll say it — the brothers ain’t trying to come to Oxford, Mississippi, for the most part,” Smith said Wednesday morning. “Compared to Gainesville or Baton Rouge, Louisiana, let’s just call it what it is.”

Those particular comments drew the ire of SEC fans several hours later during Wednesday’s The Paul Finebaum Show, where the SEC Network‘s own firebrand Paul Finebaum — who was on the First Take segment opposite Smith and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo — admonished Smith for injecting race into the conversation about Kiffin.

“Again, I realize a lot of you did not see what Stephen A. said, but he clearly made it racial. He clearly said, in his words: ‘the brothers do not want to go to Oxford, Mississippi,’ which I think has been proven to be completely incorrect,” Finebaum said during the 4 pm ET hour of The Paul Finebaum Show. “I’ve been to Oxford a million times and I think it’s terribly unfair to bring up echoes of yesteryear, the ’60s, and try and portray Oxford as that type of place today. It’s not. The South has changed. You can make your own interpretation, but to dump on Oxford while saying Gainesville and Baton Rouge would be a utopia (comparably) is baffling to me.”

Finebaum’s comments came in response to a call from “Rhonda from Tennessee,” who dialed in to sound off on Smith’s “prejudice” during the his First Take segment: “What’s wrong with Oxford, Mississippi? We’re SEC. We’re the best,” Rhonda said.

Smith’s comments aside, Kiffin’s future — be it in Oxford, or Gainesville/Baton Rouge should he opt to leave — remains the most talked-about story in college football as the fate of three premier SEC programs awaits his final decision. And that doesn’t appear to be coming anytime soon.

Making matters worse, especially for Ole Miss fans, is the fact that Kiffin and the sixth-ranked Rebels (10-1, 6-1 SEC) are in the midst of a truly historic season in Oxford. While on a bye this weekend, Ole Miss can lock up the program’s first-ever College Football Playoff berth with a win in next Saturday’s Egg Bowl against rival Mississippi State.