Upon Further Review: Why Saban and Smart are both wrong

Nick Saban and Kirby Smart are both wrong on the transfer issue.

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Yes, I said it. The god that is Nick Saban and his former understudy turned Georgia head coach Kirby Smart are completely wrong about something. Unless a person has been living under a rock lately, they would know about the Maurice Smith debacle. Just in case you do not know, Maurice Smith has graduated from the University of Alabama and is looking to become a graduate transfer.

The destination he was looking to make his new home is our own beloved University of Georgia. Alabama head coach Nick Saban was not happy about this and would not grant his transfer to UGA because of the SEC guidelines to not allow a player permission to transfer to another SEC school (without an appeal).

What is weird about this situation is that Saban granted former Alabama receiver Chris Black a transfer to Missouri, but Maurice Smith was denied from going to another SEC school. Let’s be honest though. The real reason behind this transfer block is the growing rivalry between Saban and Smart, but that’s another story for another day.

The whole Smith situation is dicey to say the least, but forget about that for a second. Let’s focus on the bigger issue.

I totally understand why Saban blocked Smith’s transfer; he did not want to open the door for other players to leave Alabama and follow Smart and some of his staff to Georgia. I get it.

Smart seems to be making himself out as the good guy, but he also denied the ability to transfer to Miami, where former UGA head coach Mark Richt is now in charge. Let’s not dismiss that.

The issue was brought up because former Georgia running back A.J. Turman decided to transfer away from Georgia, and he was not allowed to go to Miami. (He never came out that he wanted to anyway though). Smart defended his decision by issuing the following statement:

“I wanted to set the precedent for the future that kids would not be able to go to Miami right away,” said Smart. “It’s very important that we understand that, and that’s pretty much standard operating procedure when a coach leaves one place, that a kid can’t go there with the coach. That’s important to me that people understand that.”

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While I totally get and understand why Smart did this, I do not understand the big fuss being made about Saban doing it. It’s pretty much the same thing.

With that being said, I believe Nick Saban and Kirby Smart both got this wrong. A kid should be able to transfer to any school he chooses. Life is too short for blocking a transfer, and as much as I hope it doesn’t affect the game (I think the sit out for one year rule unless a graduate transfer should still be kept in place), the kid should have the freedom to do what they want.

We often sit back as fans and do not think about the college athlete. Sometimes, the school they originally signed to play with is not what it was cracked up to be, or they have a disagreement, lack of playing time or just a bad situation.

I have always been a big supporter of the college athlete and have even argued in the past for paying them. This transfer issue goes hand in hand with my beliefs. Kirby Smart and Nick Saban are two guys that I personally look up to, but they got it totally wrong on this one.