For gosh sakes, puh-leeze don’t throw Nick Saban in that briar patch, SEC!
Nick Saban remains against allowing graduate transfers to maneuver within the SEC without having to sit out a season.
But if SEC coaches want to change the league bylaws to allow grad transfers to move to another league school and play immediately, he figures Alabama will benefit more than most.
In other words, it’s a win-win for Saban. He either gets what he wants, or the policy will change in a way he thinks will benefit the Crimson Tide.
Saban believes changing the rule will create “free agency” within the league.
“If we allow that to happen within the league, I think it will benefit some schools more than others,” Saban said, “and I think we’re one of the schools that it would benefit. But I still am not for it.”
Right. Funny how his ex-coaches don’t share his point of view.
Alabama finds itself in a similar situation this year. It is blocking offensive lineman Brandon Kennedy, a graduate transfer, from going to another school within the SEC. Kennedy, who has three years of eligibility remaining, reportedly would be interested in Tennessee or Auburn if he wasn’t blocked.
“There was a lot of silence in the room last year when (the amendment) was proposed,” said Smart, who is in favor of amending the rule. “And now all of a sudden, it’s got maybe a little more steam.”
Asked whether it’s fair that another SEC school would reap the benefits of a graduate transfer after the school he’s departing put in all the legwork to develop the player, Smart quipped that it’s no different from an assistant coach leaving to become a head coach at another school.
Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt and Vols athletic director Phillip Fulmer have said they think graduate transfers maneuvering within the league should be free to play immediately.
If you’ve got the most talent, you’ve got the most talent to lose.
Get The Picture 
Good on Kirby to point out the double standard when it comes to students vs coaches moving within the conference.
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Nick Saban is a spieful, little man who engaged in rather underhanded tactics from the moment Kirby Smart left town.
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There is zero justification for restrictions on grad transfers or walk ons.
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So just change the ruie, instead of this stupid “SEC forbids it unless Coach says it’s OK.”
Kirby has blocked kids. He’s left a kid high snd dry on Signing Day. Saban isn’t the only sausage factory in the SEC. He’s not even the moat hypocritical. Simply the most visible.
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Who did we leave high and dry?
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nobody….there was a kid that was asked to look around after Chubb and Michel announced they were coming back, we didn’t have a scholly for him and he went to Texas I believe but Kirby let him know as soon as he found out about Chubb and Michel
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I know about that kid and cannot be him. This is signing day plus high and dry. Must be someone else that some how did not make the news.
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There was a JUCO DL, Larrell Murchison, I believe that had to go elsewhere only a day or two before Signing Day in 2017. Ended up at NC State. Not exactly high and dry, but he was scrambling for sure.
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What about the defensive tackle that was aked to gray shirt when not enough schollies were available? To lazy to look his name up, but he was one of the 3 stars, believe the other one did get in.
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If too lazy to actually make sure you are right maybe you should be too lazy to have an opinion. You can do better.
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Methinks it is you who doesn’t have a solid stance on this issue, Saban for the win, imo. But rail on bro, tis not only your blog, but your right to express a different opinion. I mean those chillins don’t have many choices, they are so mistreated! LMAO.
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Why is your stance that a player that has graduated cannot go to any school immediately? He did what the unexpressed contract required. He got his free education and played football. He is done. You might as well say he cannot go to the NFL. Please elaborate.
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Andy Staples’ latest article has that spin if you’re interested
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Link? Or just drive by!
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NFL is irrelevant in this case, they don’t compete with any college team. My opposition is only to teams on the schools near-term schedule. 2. As before, my concern only applies to a handful of available schools. There are a couple of hundred available options, that isn’t very limiting to me.
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Mac, the one thing I don’t get here is how you reconcile your approval of Saban’s “free agency” label — a loaded term in the context of organized sports that recognizes a contractual framework and an employer/employee relationship — with your full-throated support of amateurism, complete with amused dismissal of those ungrateful kids who don’t appreciate how good they’ve got it.
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My total support involves limiting/restricting graduate transfers to teams on the initial school’s schedule. The “free agency” concern is real when you apply it to undergrad transfers to D1 schools, chaos imo. And yes, it is a privileged existence. And no, it may not be perfectly free of needed tweaks but it doesn’t need the overall makeover and drama suggested by some here.
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In other words, you don’t bother to try to reconcile the two.
By the way, all we’re talking about here is allowing in-conference graduate transfers, so your “free agency” concern is premature at best and irrelevant bullshit at worst.
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Just to clarify, don’t we also plan on out recruiting the competition and stockpiling talent?
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Yeah, but don’t overthink this.
We’re not talking about unlimited transfers here. The only thing Kirby and Saban disagree on is graduate transfers moving within the conference. That’s a pretty small subset.
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