Saban addresses SEC graduate transfer policy at spring meetings
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Alabama head coach Nick Saban started his answer by proposing a question of his own. When asked about the SEC’s policy toward graduate transfers during the SEC spring meetings on Tuesday in Destin, Fla., the head coach began by challenging the intent of the process altogether.
“What is the intent of the rule to start with? I think the intent of the rule to start with was based on the fact that somebody was changing schools for academic reasons,” Saban told reporters. “That was the intent of the rule to start with, the way I understood it, and that was why we allowed people to transfer to other places. So, now that doesn’t matter so that’s not the intent of the rule anymore.”
Saban’s comments come after speculation over whether or not the SEC will change its graduate transfer policy during the spring meetings. The conference currently holds a complicated approach to the process, placing a three-year probation on programs that have taken graduate transfers who have failed to live up to the academic standards after enrolling.
That is the case with Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire, who would like to play his final year at Florida but is currently unable to due to former Gators graduate transfers Anthony Harrell and Mason Halter failing to meet academic requirements.
The SEC is the only conference with such a rule, often leading talented graduate transfers to choose a school from a different conference when deciding on where to finish their careers. However, that could change as the topic is sure to be one of the hot-button issues addressed this week.
"We've not apologized for having our own policies. We won't," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said during a media question and answer session in Birmingham, Ala., last month. "That doesn't mean we'll always be consistent. We've talked about recruiting being a dynamic situation and you have to adjust to those from time to time. We did regarding football camps, as you'll recall last year. I do expect one on who views the grad transfer rules as appropriate.
"That's obviously been a changing situation in college athletics. But I'm hoping we still have a standard of expecting young people to go to class and engaging in campus life if they're a graduate student transferring in to play the last season or two of their athletics eligibility."
The concern over loosening the restrictions is centered around maintaining the integrity of the process, as Saban alluded to in his questioned response. One of the most obvious examples comes in former Oregon transfer Jeremiah Masoli, who enrolled at Ole Miss in 2010 after being kicked off the team following an arrest. The former Oregon quarterback reportedly made little attempt toward pursuing his graduate degree and created a dark cloud over the process.
Then there is also the concern of SEC players moving within the conference. Last summer Alabama faced a sticky situation as senior defensive back Maurice Smith wanted to follow former Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart who had recently taken the head coaching position at Georgia.
Following the SEC’s policy banning inter-conference transfers, Alabama forbid the move until the situation garnered several negative reactions across the college football landscape. Ultimately, Alabama released Smith from his scholarship which led to the SEC granting him a waiver to carry on with the transfer.
Stating he has “never been in favor of free agency” within the conference, Saban maintained that he would follow any rule set forth by the conference.
“I think we would benefit as much as anybody in our league if you said you could transfer. Kentucky’s got a good player, we’ll go see if we can get him to come to Alabama,” Saban said. “Why would we want that? Why do we need that? How does that help the integrity of what we’re trying to do as a conference or as a league?
"So, I’m not for having free agency in our conference.When it comes to transfers from other places, I like the fact that we have some kind of academic standard built into it. I think that’s a good thing because that’s supposed to be why the guys are transferring. I don’t think we should penalize ourselves as a league and allow people to transfer other places and they can’t transfer into our league. So, if there’s some balance they can come up with all that, that’s more of what I would be for.”
Alabama was involved in two other inter-conference transfers last season, losing receiver Chris Black to Missouri and receiving kicker Andy Pappanastos from Ole Miss.
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