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First, and I'm on phone so I'm not able to link it, but it has been reported am that a paperwork error is what allowed Black to transfer in conference. It's not like he had a different set of rules than Smith, but an error helped him and same error wasn't made with Smith.

I had heard that and read it in an article...but when I mentioned it earlier in this thread, a couple of Alabama fans were adamant that he was given and immediate release and this was not the case.

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Second, Black wasn't in the media about it the way smith and family have been.

Why would he be? I mean, either his request fell through the cracks and he got what he wanted, or as some Alabama posters insist, he was given his immediate release. he had no reason to go through the media.

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Third, Black told team last year he wanted to transfer and, I think, didn play after that. Smith told Saban shortly before fall practice of his intentions.

While technically true, this had been ongoing since last November, and the relationship was damaged when Saban called Smith into his office and yelled at him for something he knew nothing about.

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Finally, Smith was going to go to Miami and Saban was fine with it.

Actually, it was Baylor, but your point stands.

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It's only once Smith wanted to go in conference that the issue arose.

And yet, Black went to Missouri. And, there might be some credence to the story of some Alabama fans are saying. This is what Alabama says happened in the Chris Black situation:

Alabama has previously defended not releasing Smith from his scholarship and contrasted his situation from that of wide receiver Chris Black, who transferred to Missouri as a graduate transfer. Black was injured during the 2015 season and the school said his scholarship wasn’t renewed.

You would think if it was a clerical error as was stated in the article, that Alabama would say that instead of saying they did not renew the scholarship of a player because he was injured.