🏈 SEC Spring meetings: Saban Addresses the Media on Day One.

[Max]

College Sports: 5 storylines for SEC spring meetings: Will conference finally end its alcohol prohibition? | SportsDay

Around this time last year, everyone wanted to talk about satellite camps.

That included Alabama coach Nick Saban, who gave a podium-thumping spiel on the topic at SEC spring meetings last year.

At this year's meetings in Destin, Fla., everyone should be spared any discussions about the camp issue that filled the dead space between spring football and media days in July. There don't appear to be any similar hot-button issues on the docket (fingers crossed, everyone), but there should be plenty of talking points.


Presidents, athletic directors and football and basketball coaches from all 14 SEC schools will travel to the Florida panhandle for the four-day event that will shape conference-wide policy for the 2017-18 school year.

Here are five things to watch at this week's meetings, which start Tuesday:

1. Will the SEC change its graduate transfer policy?

The SEC limits a school from accepting new graduate transfers if previous transfer student-athletes did not make sufficient academic progress toward their degree. This reportedly hindered Florida from pursuing former Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire, who still hasn't announced where he is playing next.

"That's obviously been a changing situation in college athletics," SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was quoted as saying last month by AL.com. "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."

Texas has been a rumored landing spot for Zaire. But if the SEC changes its policy in Destin, it could put Florida in play for Zaire once again. The Gators host Texas A&M on Oct. 14.

2. What does the SEC want to do with staff sizes?

This spring, the NCAA approved new legislation that allowed Football Bowl Subdivision programs to add a 10th assistant as early as January 2018. Unofficially, Alabama and other SEC teams have analysts in addition to the now-expanded coaching staff. In April, Sankey said the discussion about the appropriate size for football staffs will take place in Destin. It's unclear what kind of regulation, if any, will be proposed regarding this issue.

3. Does Saban go off (again)?

Saban's passionate speech about satellite camps was one of the more memorable moments of last year's meetings. Could we see something similar this week? Based on his diatribe in April regarding a proposed NCAA rule change on high school coaches camps (the proposal later died), there's a chance Saban opens up about something that's on his mind. At the very least, there are decent odds the successful Alabama coach will say something thought-provoking in Destin.

4. Will the SEC leave its prohibition era?

Talk of general alcohol sales at sporting events has been floated around the SEC for at least the last year. That increased when LSU started thinking about adding a beer garden in Tiger Stadium, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate. The SEC prohibits in-stadium beer sales. But considering how much money there is to be made, it might not be a bad idea to put in a few taps for the general public.

5. Does Auburn finally move to the SEC East?

The biggest indicator that spring meetings are just around the corner is when someone floats the notion of Auburn switching from the West to the East, which has been the weaker of the two divisions the last few years. Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs reportedly floated the topic on Thursday, just in time for this year's trip to Destin. The chances of Auburn staying in the West with the likes of Alabama and LSU are high, but that doesn't mean the topic won't be mentioned to Sankey at some point this week.

 

[Max]

https://www.seccountry.com/sec/six-big-issues-on-the-table-at-this-years-sec-spring-meetings

DESTIN, Fla. – Nick Saban, who contrary to perception does sometimes smile and make a joke, opened an SEC meetings press conference a couple years ago by doing just that.

“It always makes me nervous when there’s no issues,” said Alabama’s football coach. “Because then somebody creates one.”

This year’s version of the SEC meetings sets up that way too: No single overriding issue. So the question becomes whether the few smaller issues carry the day, or whether others (media, coaches) succeed in creating controversy.

Steve Spurrier won’t be here for the first time in a decade, so that doesn’t help the cause for controversy; a few people around the conference have joked about bringing Spurrier in just for that purpose. Of course, few would be surprised if Spurrier just showed up anyway.

Here’s a look at the expected main topics, both on the official agenda, and those that might come up anyway:

Preventing Baylor/Penn State scenarios

This isn’t on any official agenda, or wasn’t as of last week. But the Baylor scandal makes it certain that everyone – especially coaches — will be asked about it, and how to stop football from becoming a lawless program on campus. Tennessee has been dealing with its own situation — which so far has not reached anything close to Baylor-level — but football coach Butch Jones might have to address it.

The Ole Miss situation will also come up, but that involves old-school NCAA violations. It will be interesting to see if SEC commissioner Greg Sankey weighs in, or if Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze avoids the media Tuesday and Wednesday.

Satellite camps and the recruiting calendar

This was the main topic at last year’s meetings, when the SEC decided to put a one-year expiration date on its self-imposed ban on satellite camps, hoping the NCAA would outlaw them nationally. It did, only to rescind the ban, and now it’s the Wild West, with SEC teams joining camps left and right.

The SEC isn’t likely to see any official action taken on satellite camps this week; there isn’t much that can be done now that it’s been settled nationally. But it will come up as part of a larger discussion about the recruiting calendar, specifically how much time coaches have to spend on the road during time they’d rather be doing something else — like catching up with family.

Prediction: You’re going to hear a lot of SEC coaches mention this. For all their reputation as recruiting mavens, even the Nick Sabans and Kirby Smarts of the world have their limits.

Student-athlete time management

Speaking of free time, the lack of it for student-athletes is something that has also been getting a lot of attention, at least within the NCAA. The SEC likely won’t take any official action on this either, but Sankey and other administrators will bend over backwards to look sympathetic to athletes who think their time commitments are over-stretched these days.

For the first time ever, student-athletes are invited to Destin for these meetings, just to bring their perspective. They are:

Arkansas women’s tennis player Flavia Araujo, Ole Miss pitcher Brady Bramlett, former Mississippi State football player Jay Hughes, Tennessee women’s basketball player Diamond DeShields, and Texas A&M diver Marc Antoine.

Football replay

The SEC has adopted a centralized replay system, or “collaborative,” as it puts it, where crews both on-site and in a centralized location will view replays and make decisions. It’s closer to the model used in Major League Baseball, the difference being MLB decisions are all made in New York.

Steve Shaw, the SEC’s coordinator of officials, will elaborate on the plan when he meets with the media on Thursday. He is also expected to brief coaches on it earlier in the week.

Early signing period

This was the hot-button issue at SEC meetings two years ago – and frankly there’s been little movement since then. The SEC is fine with that, as it prefers the status quo: One signing day per year, the first Wednesday in February. The SEC proposed two years ago that if there is an early period it be just after Thanksgiving. That served to muddy the waters enough that nothing has happened nationally.

The topic is not expected to come up, as the conference would prefer it just go away. But it could come up organically.

Basketball problems
The SEC has been here before: It only got three bids to the NCAA tournament, continuing a trend over the past decade in which the once-proud basketball conference has slipped into mediocrity. Take away Kentucky – especially with Billy Donovan gone from Florida – and you have a mid-major.

Sankey acted quickly after the season, hiring former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese to oversee any needed changes, while former associate commissioner for basketball Mark Whitworth departed.

Tranghese will meet with the basketball coaches for the first time in Destin. Expect the focus to be on big-picture talk, in terms of marketing programs, rather than talk about scheduling for NCAA resume purposes. Sankey, according to someone familiar with his thinking, wants to “widen the discussion.”

Other topics
The conference is expected to announce a site for the SEC baseball tournament, which could be leaving its longtime home in Hoover, Ala.

Other hot-button topics – expansion, football scheduling, drug policies – are not on the official agenda. They could still come up, especially expansion, but only as a contingency: What could or should the SEC do if the Big 12 expands?

That discussion almost certainly will be kept behind closed doors. It would be surprising if Sankey or anybody reveals anything publicly. But you never know.

 

[By Alex Byington Sports]

TUSCALOOSA — Greg Byrne fondly remembers his first experience at the Southeastern Conference Spring Meetings in Destin, Florida, when he was just two months on the job as Mississippi State’s 36-year-old rookie athletic director.

Much like how he handled the meetings as the conference’s youngest AD in 2008, Byrne — now 45 — anticipates taking a more measured sit-back-and-listen approach in his return to the meetings beginning Tuesday as Alabama’s new athletic director.

“Obviously we have a lot of really smart ADs and smart people from the SEC, and I have history here, which helps,” Byrne said Friday, “but I also want to be respectful, especially as I reconnect with the SEC.”

Byrne is one of six SEC athletic directors with a year or less on the job, joining Mississippi State’s John Cohen, Tennessee’s John Currie, Missouri’s Jim Sterk, Florida’s Scott Stricklin and Texas A&M’s Scott Woodward.

Byrne is one of four current ADs that stem from the tree of longtime Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart, the dean of SEC ADs, joining Cohen, Currie and Stricklin.

While Byrne will encounter some friendly faces at the meetings, he is ready to get to work representing Alabama.

Byrne is focused on doing what is best for Alabama. But having already served in the SEC previously, he also understands there is an overall sense of serving the common good of the conference.

“One of the best things about the SEC is there’s such a strong sense of collegiality,” Byrne said. “Obviously everybody has to look after their own school, but at the same time too you also have to work together as a conference to find that right balance, and I think the SEC has always done that as well as anybody.”

Here's a look at severals topics that likely will be discussed this week:

Staff sizes

It’s a topic that emerged this spring following comments Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby made in April as the chairman of the Football Oversight Committee.

While discussing the committee’s future plans, Bowlsby addressed a “deep dive” into the growing sizes of football staffs, implying a program — which many assumed to be Alabama — is believed to have upwards of 97 staffers.

While not directly addressing the “97” figure, Alabama coach Nick Saban has defended his hiring practices, including pointing out how little “interns” make working with the Tide.

“All these people that complain about staff sizes, I mean, we pay interns really, really little money — (a) very small amount of money,” Saban said in April. “You would be shocked at how cheap the labor really is. It’s almost criminal. And why we have administrators complaining about how many cheap labor people you have trying to promote the profession, trying to do something to develop our game and the coaches in the game, because how else do you develop guys?”

In a preliminary look at football staff sizes earlier this month, the NCAA determined Alabama had 31 total football staffers — 10 on-field coaches, 13 working with football operations, seven handling off-field/recruiting activities and just one strength and conditioning coach. By the NCAA’s own numbers, the Tide’s 31 staffers wouldn’t even be the most in the SEC, tying for sixth in the conference with Mississippi State.

That figure doesn’t take into account the four additional assistant strength and conditioning coaches listed on the Alabama’s own online staff directory, the multiple graduate assistant and analyst positions, and the interns that serve to help the football staff at practice and during weekly preparations.

But while the SEC will likely attempt to get ahead of the issue, Byrne didn’t sound in favor of placing any additional restrictions on the size of the Tide’s football staff.

“I think it’s been a strength of ours at Alabama, and that’s worked really well for us,” Byrne said, “so if those discussions advance, we’ll do our best to find the right balance that works for us at Alabama.”

Alcohol sales

For the second straight year, expect the SEC to discuss the possibility of allowing alcohol sales at on-campus sporting events, a practice has taken off elsewhere in recent years.

LSU is “aggressively” pushing for the conference to lift its strict alcohol ban while already well into plans to install a “beer garden” into Tiger Stadium for the upcoming season.

Earlier this spring, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said he expects “further review of the (SEC’s) prohibition” against alcohol sales at on-campus sites, but there is always the potential to return the decision back to each individual institution, an idea that is expected to be discussed at length in Destin.

Despite that potential, Byrne made it clear Alabama is “a long ways away” from allowing alcohol sales at Bryant-Denny Stadium or Coleman Coliseum.

Transfer rules

Graduate transfers have been a hot topic across college football over the last several years, but after facing some complicated issues in the last year, it appears the SEC is ready to take steps to addressing its own transfer policy.

"This will be the first meaningful conversation that we've had since the proliferation of graduate transfers has happened nationally," Sankey told the AP. "I expect our membership to have a pretty meaningful conversation about the right perspective on graduate transfers entering the SEC from outside and then the topic of inter-conference transfers."

Last summer, Alabama was embroiled in a battle with one of its own players when rising senior defensive back Maurice Smith wanted to transfer to Georgia, where he could reconnect with former Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart.

Staying in line with the current SEC policy forbidding such moves, Saban and the Tide fought the transfer until it developed into a public relations nightmare. Alabama eventually released Smith from his scholarship, at which point the SEC granted him a waiver to move on to Georgia.

Given the complications involved, it’s unclear just how the SEC might address the issue, but there’s little doubt transfers will be a hot topic this week.

“I know we’re going to have more discussions about that, (but) where we land on it, I don’t know yet,” Byrne said.


Decatur Daily—Continue reading...

 

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[alagator]

How many of these players had offers that would be considered better than Arkansas?

 

[TerryP]

Sgt. Carter with another doozy.

Butch Jones: “The first element that goes into winning championships is contending to win championships and our program has done that.".

 

[TerryP]

Sgt. Carter with another doozy.

Butch Jones: “The first element that goes into winning championships is contending to win championships and our program has done that.".

At this pace he's going to rival Yogi for some real zingers.

 

[alagator]

 

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[18Champs]

Transcript of Saban addressing the media at the SEC Spring Meetings:

Destin, Fl. — SEC Spring meetings kicked off on Tuesday with a half-dozen coaches speaking to the media. They’ll spend the rest of the week addressing potential rule changes, issues facing the conference and more during their meetings.

Alabama football head coach Nick Saban fielded questions for 15 minutes on a variety of subjects. Saban spoke about graduate transfer rules inside and outside the conference, the new December signing period, run-pass option plays and the Crimson Tide’s opener against Florida State. Here’s what Saban had to say:

OPENING STATEMENT

Saban: “We’re excited. This time of year sort of gets you excited about football season even though we still have summer and six weeks until SEC Media Days. But the fact that our freshman reported on Sunday and the varsity guys came back yesterday, start school today, it sort of puts you in the mind that this year is starting for what we want to do over the summer. So we’re really excited about that. I’m looking forward to… I think a lot of what happens during the summer has a lot to do with team chemistry that you develop. It’s the time of year when the coaches aren’t always around the players. The players work out with the strength and conditioning coaches for the most part in the summer. So I think leadership, togetherness, a lot of the intangible things that your team needs to develop internally has a better chance to actually occur over the summertime when the coach is not always there to make it happen for them. So we’re excited about that. But other than that, we’re looking forward to the meetings. There were obviously a lot of changes being talked about here and it’ll be interesting to see what everybody’s opinion and solutions are to some of the issues that are facing us in the community.”

Did the recent rules changes make the game better?


Saban: “Tell me how it betters anything. A lot of the things that happen in college football — this is no disrespect to anyone — is there’s a lot of paranoia that someone else has an advantage on someone else, whether it’s a conference, whether it’s one team versus another, whether it’s one conference versus another. So if we can sort of create some rules that sort of, some kind of way negate that advantage that somebody creates or pass a rule that creates some advantages for us… I think there’s some of that that goes on. But I also think there are some things that are really important, like player safety rules. Those are important things that can benefit the game and benefit the players. But I’m not sure about changing about the recruiting calendar around. I’m not really sure about this whole high school coach thing and employment in camps and things that sometimes we take a sledgehammer to kill a fly and it has some unintended consequence, which we may see here sometime in the future.”

Some of these rules changes are in response to something you and your staff have done. Is that flattering, or is it annoying?

Saban: “Well I don’t think we came up with anything that caused any of the changes that we’re doing right now. I think everybody is working hard to stay on the cutting edge, within the rules of course, to do the best things they can for their team, their organization so they have the best chance to be successful. I think that’s what everybody is really trying to do. I don’t know what we did to cause any of this.”

Not any of the recent rules, but some in previous years we’ve been here…

Saban: “I think that Urban Meyer and I probably got the head coaches taken off the road in the spring, because he and I went out all the time. I guess everybody else didn’t want to do that. It wasn’t against the rules to go out. So they all had a choice to do it. It’s a typical example of ‘OK, we’re not doing this so we don’t want anybody else to do it.'”

Does that drive you crazy?

“No. It just kind of is what it is.”

There’s discussion about modifying the graduate transfer rule. Where do you come down on that?

“What specifically?”

Specifically to change the rule that there’s a penalty if you have a graduate transfer and the transfer doesn’t meet certain academic benchmarks. They’re talking about changing that.

Saban: “Well, what is the intent of the rule to start with? I think the intent of the rule to start with was that somebody was changing schools for academic reasons. That was the intent of the rule from the way I understood it. 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. I’ve never been in favor of free agency in our league. I don’t think that’s a good thing. I wasn’t for it last year. I don’t think I’ll ever be for it. I mean, why should guys leave your team and go play for somebody else and you have to play against them? I don’t think that’s fair.

“Look, I think we would benefit. We would benefit as much as anybody in our league if you said you can transfer. Kentucky’s got a good player? We’ll go see if we can get him to come to Alabama. Why do 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? I’m not for having free agency in our conference. When it comes to transfers in 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, but they can’t transfer to our league. So if there’s some balance we can come up with on that, that’s more what I would be for.”

Would you be for a ban on intraconference transfers?

Saban: “We really always had that until last year. We always had that until last year. Until last year it was kind of understood. And we had rules that said we didn’t want to do that. But it got pushed and we gave.”

How frustrating was that for you?

Saban: “Look, I don’t get frustrated. I try to deal with things the best way we can, so why get frustrated? I’d rather use your best ability to go through the channels to try to enhance what your beliefs are, and if you can’t get that point across, that’s your fault. That’s my fault. And I don’t know what advantage was created by all that. I don’t know who won any more games or lost any more games because of that. I don’t know who benefited from it. If someone wants to do some research on that and let me know, I’d be happy to change my opinion about it, but tell me who benefited from that.”

You mentioned unintended consequences. What are some things you’re concerned about, or that you foresee?

Saban: “Look, I’m old-fashioned, so things like not being able to hire a high school coach to speak at a clinic or work a camp… There’s a lot of guys that are good college coaches now that started out as high school coaches and that’s how they got into college coaching. I certainly believe from a professional standpoint that we have a responsibility and an obligation as college coaches to help develop people in our profession. Several of the coaches that we’ve hired, not as full-time coaches that have become full-time coaches that are very successful coaches in our league now. Well that’s not going to happen now. I believe in that. Contrary to what everybody thinks, a lot of the reason that we have the staff that we have promote professional growth and to help people have an opportunity to be coaches. If somebody didn’t give me an opportunity to be a graduate assistant when I started out, I wouldn’t be where I am today. It’s a very difficult profession to get started in. I’m always for that. I think we may have some consequences relative to that down the road.”

People have talked about the consequences for coaches and programs with the early signing period. What consequences do you see for the kids?

Saban: “I think the issue is going to be when we change and have an early signing period in December, which to me, is way better than having one before their senior year. So if we’re going to have an early signing date, this is the best one that we can have. But the fear is that this will become the signing date. Now everything revolves around December 20th, 22nd, whenever it is. Then everybody will want to take an official visit during the season, which is not the best time to take official visits. Or now we have to change the recruiting calendar and have April, May and June, which we’re considering now to have official visits. Which if that benefits the players, maybe we can have a smaller window. Maybe April. How about May? How about when we have finals and things like that happening? How about May when we don’t even have anybody on our campus, because nobody goes to school. None of our players are there. So I don’t think some of these things have been really thought out well.

“We typically, and to be honest with you, as hard as you think I work, I like the fact that from June 17 until July 15, our guys are on vacation. So they’re not going to be on vacation, because we’re going to have people visiting and we’re going to be recruiting all during the summer. So I just don’t think these things have been really well thought-out. I don’t think it creates a real advantage for anybody. There are some people that say that the student-athlete wants the chance to take these visits earlier on. I don’t know.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time. When I first started doing it, nobody even got offered a scholarship until after their senior year. So the downside of moving all this forward, is what happens to the guy that’s a late bloomer and a late developer and has a great senior year but he doesn’t get any opportunities to go anyplace because everybody has already signed everybody or has commitments from everybody? And football is a developmental game, so it’s very possible that guys play a lot better in their senior year than maybe they did in their junior year. So we’re going to be forced to evaluate guys in their junior year and sophomore year. Which, there’s a tremendous difference in our players from the time when they’re 18 years old to 22 or 23 years old in our program, and I’m sure that same thing exists from the time they’re 15 years old until they’re 18 years old in high school. Probably even more so. So we made it more difficult on ourselves to evaluate the players, which in turn is not really fair to the players. We like to have a role for every player that we recruit. So if we don’t have an opportunity to evaluate that, then we get a player in our program that maybe doesn’t fit a role, so he’s not going to be happy. Sometimes, less is more. It’s not always ‘move it up, do it faster, be the first one.’ That’s where we’re getting to. I don’t see that there’s a whole lot wrong with the calendar we have now. It’s worked really, really well for college football for a long, long time. But it may go back to one of those things where I talked about somebody having an agenda that benefits them.”

With the explosion of RPO, what’s the next step defensively? How much time in the offseason do you spend figuring that out?

Saban: “I don’t think there’s any answer to RPOs. You can run a running play, and the offensive line blocks a running play, which the defensive player keys a run and pass, but it’s a running play, and the quarterback sits there and does this and then throws the ball, because the safety doesn’t come down or the safety does come down or whatever, there is no solution to that. Other than that you can’t go downfield three-and-a-half yards to block, which is the rule in the NFL and some other places. So if they’re not willing to change that… (shrugs). But on the other hand, it’s exciting. We score like 40 more points a game than what we used to. Our 2011 team gave up eight points a game. The best defense in the country gives up twice that now and it’s going to continue to go that way. Very difficult to play defensive football when you can’t key the difference between runs and passes.”

Would you like to see it addressed in the rules?

Saban: “No. Whatever the rule is, we’ll do it too. So what makes the difference? We’ll run running plays where we throw passes, just like everybody else.”

Jimbo Fisher mentioned at the ACC meetings that they’re working on the game plan for Alabama. How soon will you do something similar? How good is it for college football to kick off the season with an FSU-Alabama kind of matchup?

Saban: “We’ve always tried to play one of these games early in the season. I think it’s good for our team, it’s good for their development. Florida State has a great team and will probably be No. 1 in the country. It’s exciting for our players throughout the offseason, the spring and the summer, to get ready for a game like that. I don’t think that because of who we’re playing that anything really changes in terms of how you get ready for a game. We do research before spring practice on our new opponents so that we can address some of the things that they do in spring practice. We do another scouting report, research over the summer so that we can do some things in the fall. Especially for the first three opponents, we have kind of a semi-game plan ready before we ever start fall camp. It doesn’t change relative to who you’re playing. I can’t remember when the first game that we played was not important. So if it’s important, why wouldn’t we do a good job of trying to get our players ready to play that game, because it is important, just like this game against Florida State is important.”

 

[TUSKtimes]

No one asked coach about the barners going east? That would have been worth the price of admission.

 

[By Alex Byington Sports]

Saban, Smart at odds over review of SEC's graduate transfer policy

DESTIN, Fla. — Alabama football coach Nick Saban last year opposed one of his players moving from one SEC school to the next based on a longstanding conference bylaw that forbid players with less than two years of eligibility from transferring within the conference.

Things didn’t quite work out the way Saban intended. Former Alabama defensive back Maurice Smith eventually was allowed to transfer to Georgia and reunite with former Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart.

"Until last year it was kind of understood” that players couldn't transfer within the SEC, Saban said during the SEC Spring Meetings on Tuesday morning. “And we had rules that said we didn't want to do that. But it got pushed and we gave (in).”


With the SEC’s graduate transfer policy under review this week at the annual spring meetings at the Hilton Sandestin, Saban revisited the Smith saga from last August. Smith was one of two Alabama players who elected to transfer within the SEC last summer (receiver Chris Black left for Missouri).

“I don't know what advantage was created by all that," Saban said about Smith's transfer. "I don't know who won any more games or lost any more games because of that. I don't know who benefited from it."

The SEC granted two waiver exemptions for Smith, a rising senior at the time, to both transfer with only one more season of eligibility and play immediately, forgoing the required one-year redshirt year with intra-conference moves.

While not directly addressing the Smith situation, Smart reaffirmed his support for changing the current rule limiting such a cross-conference graduate transfer should another one arise in the future.

“If that kid has been in your program and he’s graduated from your university, I think he should have the capability to go somewhere and play football,” Smart said. “He’s earned that right, and he’s fulfilled his obligation to get a degree from that university. So I think it’s important to allow that.”

Much like Smart, several other SEC coaches expressed their hope for a league-wide overhaul of the transfer policy, especially when it comes to balancing the playing field with regard to how other leagues deal with transfers.

“I think we need to have the same rules that everybody else in college football (has),” South Carolina coach Will Muschamp said. “Our league has done an outstanding job of monitoring the transfer policy and the polices we have in place, and I think they’re fair. But it is a little unfair for us in the league to have a different set of rules than the competition in the other places.”

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said there are “three different graduate transfer-related pieces of legislation” under consideration during this week’s meetings, including two that directly stem from Smith’s transfer.

Among the policies up for review are the two-year eligibility requirement and addressing the waiver process regarding the mandatory one year to sit requirement for inter-conference moves.


The third policy under review is the penalty associated with Florida’s current situation restricting the Gators from accepting another graduate transfer for a three-year period after two previous grad transfers from the 2015 class failed to complete “adequate academic progress” before leaving school. The expectation is the three-year penalty for failed academic progress might be reduced to just one year, which in turn would allow Florida to sign former Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire as a grad transfer this summer.

While Saban is supportive of reducing the academic penalty to be more in line with other conferences, he’s maintaining his stance against intra-conference transfers, comparing the potential to change the SEC’s current policy to “free agency.”

“I've never been in favor of free agency in our league. I don't think that's a good thing,” Saban said. “I wasn't for it last year. I don't think I'll ever be for it. I mean, why should guys leave your team and go play for somebody else and you have to play against them? I don't think that's fair.”

Should the SEC elect to completely open up its transfer policy, Saban not-so-playfully suggested the Crimson Tide would only be aided by such a move.

“We would benefit as much as anybody in our league if you said you can transfer. Kentucky's got a good player? We'll go see if we can get him to come to Alabama,” Saban said. “Why do 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? I'm not for having free agency in our conference.”


Decatur Daily—Continue reading...

 

[TerryP]

Sgt. Carter with another doozy.

Butch Jones: “The first element that goes into winning championships is contending to win championships and our program has done that.".

 

[TUSKtimes]

It's really hopeless for this guy. As often as fans, mostly his own, have ridiculed his coach-speak he continues to be perpetually tone-deaf.

 

[RTB X Bot]