DESTIN, Fla. – There was a time not too long ago when college athletes had to jump through all sorts of political hoops in order to transfer from one school to another.
Obviously, that’s no longer true.
We've seen the advent of the transfer portal, which many see as a sort of Pandora’s Box; it has forced schools to deal with items such as roster management differently than they’ve had to before.
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“Regardless of what I say, that’s not going to change. It’s here to stay. You as the head coach have to manage your roster whether it's an un-graduated or graduate situation. It hurts, and I think a lot of coaches would agree, in terms of depth on your football team,” South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp said. “We have four guys this year who were graduate transfers. They were all good players. They were all good people. They graduated. They contributed to our football team, but they felt like they wanted another opportunity somewhere else, and that’s the rules and you support that.”
That’s an area Alabama’s Nick Saban and Georgia’s Kirby Smart certainly know a lot about.
Smart had quarterback Justin Fields leave after the Sugar Bowl for Ohio State, while Jalen Hurts left Alabama as a graduate transfer to Oklahoma.
Surprisingly, Smart isn’t as concerned as some.
“Kids have always been able to go places, change, make decisions. Roster management hasn’t changed from the standpoint of working off 85 (scholarships), working off medicals,” Smart said. “There’s been a slight changes to the number of guys you can sign annually. There’s been a slight increase in the number of players that come out early. Over time, if you look at history, it’s gone up, up, up. But each individual school’s impact has varied from maybe one coming out to maybe schools having five or six coming out. It’s been very subtle changes. So I think as it continues to grow, it’s something we deal with. I don’t think there’s a major concern there.”
Still, others have concerns.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey would like to see some clarity on the waiver process as it applies to players like Fields and others such as former Bulldog tight end Luke Ford.
Fields was granted immediate eligibility to play for the Buckeyes, while Ford, who told UGASports he was transferring to Illinois to be closer to his ailing grandfather, has yet to be granted a waiver for immediate playing time by the NCAA.
Saban is also concerned with the notion some players have that the grass is always greener somewhere else.
“We’ve accelerated the recruiting calendar forward so guys who are freshmen and sophomores are expected to get recruited. I still think development is a really important part of any player’s future, and committing to that development personally, academically, and athletically is important,” Saban said. “And if we make it easy for them to get uncommitted to that, I don’t know how much that benefits them or their future. But there are circumstances when I think players probably have a situation where there may be a benefit to them going someplace else.”
Smart echoed the feelings of his former boss.
“They can always leave. They just might not be able to get their release. But they still had to sit a year. What’s really changed is the graduate transfer opportunity to go anywhere you want to go,” Smart said. “That’s probably been the more major change. But not all guys that go into the portal get to go play right away. Certainly, it’s trending that way, but not all of them do. And some of them do it for different reasons. Every kid’s got their different reasons for doing it. With each kid, it’s done on an individual basis. That’s something for the NCAA to decide.”
Still, the debate continues.
Coaches like Matt Luke of Ole Miss are concerned that the situations with transfers will only get worse as the extra freedom to move around will result in a version of college free agency.
“I think it’s moving in that direction with more and more transfers and I think the portal just maybe shows that, promotes it just a little bit more,” Luke said. “I don’t see it slowing down anytime sure for sure.”
Muschamp agrees
“I certainly do, but it’s here to stay,” Muschamp said. “I just don’t think anything is going to change as far as that is concerned.”
