re: Saban blocking transfer of Smith. Mom not happy

Les has made it to the pinnacle of his career without having to sell out to do so. I'm sure he gets a great night's sleep, whereas Saban's pillow?

Not so soft, bruh.

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Meh, there's more to this than we know right now. The kid already knowing where he's going before he leaves stinks to me. Coaches can have ZERO communication with players on current rosters. Something just smells here. No way Saban is this hot if the kid just wants to leave. He's let tons of kids transfer over the years. I guarantee u we hear more information the next few days.

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I mean, it's the summer. He hasn't had much to do other than finish class, workout, and talk to his boys Kirby and Mel.

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Les has made it to the pinnacle of his career without having to sell out to do so. I'm sure he gets a great night's sleep, whereas Saban's pillow?

Not so soft, bruh.

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Pretty sure that Les and Saban both get a pretty good nights sleep.

And I'm fricking thrilled about what Bama has accomplished over the last few years. How about you?

Bruh?

Broomhodalahdahd

You sir, with all due respect arena idiot

U have quite the imagination I see bud

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Saban is half the man and coach Hugh Freeze is. Hugh allowed Austin Golson to transfer to Auburn because there's where he wanted to go, and didn't throw a baby back bitch fit.

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Golson sat out 2014 at Auburn?

Smith can sit out the 2016 season if he really wants to go to UGA.

It's amazing how few UGA posters have actually said much in this thread. It's an odd situation, because I'm really not sure how the kid is likely to get any significant increased PT at UGA. Likely still competing at the nickel slot and Rico McGraw started 5 games last season as a freshman and was pretty effective doing so.

I wasn't personally a fan of Smart's restriction on Turman's transfer, but for those trying to compare the 2, it's simply not the same. I think in general, transfer restrictions are a messy subject. I understand the slippery slope argument for undergrads with multiple years of eligibility left, but for a kid that clearly busted it both on the field and in the classroom to finish college in 3 years and only has a year of eligibility left, it's not like they grow on trees... there's not an avalanche of grad transfers at any program. The farce that is the NCAA in general has painted themselves a bit into a corner here. *Functionally* transfer restrictions operate as many others in this thread have described, Non-compete clauses. The rub is that football players are student athletes, not employees, even if we all know that's what they are - members of the unpaid minor league football teams that we know and love. Non-competes are practically unenforceable anywhere, and yet because the student isn't getting paid, it seems that the NCAA's bullshite student athlete status may once again work out pretty well for them. It's like a house of cards built on a grated fan cover... at some point that thing is going to cut on and blow the house the frick up, but in the meantime it sure is pretty.

There has been a lot of reference to "the rule" stating that he must sit out a year. This is simply semantics though. The rule states that with a waiver granted by the head coach, a graduate transfer may play immediately. This rule is specific to the SEC, btw, as it is not enforceable out of conference. It's not like Saban is "allowing" him to transfer elsewhere, he's simply selectively deciding to enforce a rule now that he didn't feel was necessary with Chris Black and Mizzou.

Again, I'll stand by that I don't believe this should be within the head coach's control, for the simple reason that most people will behave in a manner to which they are incentivized. Head coaches like Saban, Smart, and every other coach are incentivized to *win*, and maintaining what they perceive to be a competitive advantage is certainly something they will be unlikely to let go of without external "motivation". With that said, the rules in place are what they are, so at this point it's simply a matter of "is it worth it". I'd imagine there will be more negative recruiting impact to Bama/Saban as a result of this than any on field impact actualized by the Smith transfer were he to have just allowed it. Whether the stuff in the trash was staged or actual, the texts and communication received by Smith are just bad form. From what I gleaned of the article, it appears that Bama re-upped his Grant in Aid and at the same time prevented him from utilizing facilities and services that are included as part of that Grant in Aid. Not a tort or contract law expert, but fairly certain that would fall somewhere in the realm of breach of contract if someone really wanted to dive into it a bit.

No matter how you slice it, it's not a great look for Alabama or College Football in general. While I don't particularly like Saban, this isn't really as much about him being a "bad guy" as many seem to want to make it about, and rather that he's simply incentivized to be a dick about this particular issue if he believes doing so offers him a competitive advantage. Universal rules make for some pretty shitty fringe circumstances, and yet in this particular case if feels like protecting kids who already are fairly powerless in the grand scheme of things seems like the right thing to do.