Justice finally served in Maurice Smith’s graduate transfer saga

The uncomfortable saga of Maurice Smith’s fight to transfer from Alabama to Georgia may be over. But the principle remains the same. The SEC needs to scrap the rule that penalizes players who have earned the right to choose where they want to play.

The one statement made by any of the parties that reflected the most reason was made by Smith himself.

“I believe that this will not only help me but help anyone else who comes into my situation in the future,” Smith told AL.com. “That's why I say it's almost bigger than me because not only am I stepping out on faith but I'm trying to get a point across that if you do everything right you should be awarded what is better for you or best for you if that's something you choose to do.”

It was indeed bigger than Smith, bigger than Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, bigger than SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, even bigger than a rule written 16 years ago that is at best antiquated, at worst completely unfair.

In the end, justice was served. Smith was released transfer to Georgia with immediate eligibility.

That’s because Saban finally did the right thing and granted Smith a full release, instead of limiting his choices to non-SEC schools. In doing so, Saban put the decision in the hands of the SEC. That’s what he should have done all along, and maybe he relented simply because the situation had become an unwinnable PR fight.

The SEC made the right call by granting Smith a conditional waiver to transfer to Georgia. But the wordy statement issued by Sankey was awkward in its tedious details. It was as if the SEC tried to justify an unfair rule while at the same time agreeing that the rule needs to be revised.

Here are some of Sankey’s quotes from the SEC statement:

"The standard for granting waivers has been clear and compelling evidence that there is reason for allowing an exception to SEC rules. I found, among other contributing factors, that a student-athlete who graduates in three years and exhibits a strong commitment to his or her academic future provides compelling motivation to help them achieve their goals on and off the field.

"Our SEC institutions adopted the intra-conference transfer rule in 2000 due to concerns that the transfer of current student-athletes within the conference would be viewed as unhealthy for student-athletes, the institutions and the conference alike, so this waiver is not granted lightly. The University of Alabama vigorously defended this SEC rule for good reason and has assisted this process in every way. The current rule places our coaches and administrators in untenable situations, so it is time for us to address graduate transfer rules. An individual university does not possess the authority to activate that change, so adherence to these rules and the process by which exceptions are sought remain critical for every institution in the SEC."

There was one caveat to the release. Smith and Georgia will be held accountable for Smith’s academic progress. If Smith fails to pass nine hours of graduate work this fall semester, he will be ineligible for postseason play. Furthermore, if Smith fails to graduate within three academic years, then Georgia cannot request another graduate waiver until 2021-22 or until Smith graduates, whichever comes first.

That’s perfectly understandable. After all, this is completely an academic and not football matter, right?

Now let’s see the SEC impose such academic standards on all graduate players. If the conference did not place the same conditions on Chris Black’s transfer from Alabama to Missouri, they should do so retroactively. Likewise, if Jake Coker or Greyson Lambert don’t earn their graduate degrees within three years of their transfers, then Alabama or Georgia respectively should be penalized accordingly.

Furthermore, let’s see the SEC impose stricter academic standards on underclassmen as well.

While they’re at it, the SEC needs to impose some stricter rules on coaches leaving one SEC school to go to another. First of all, any coach involved in recruiting – on or off campus – on the first day of the live recruiting period in January should be prohibited from going to another school for at least one football season.

Another step would be to eliminate the “for promotion” exceptions; that is, a position coach leaving to become a coordinator, or a coordinator leaving to become a head coach. How is that different from a player who wants to leave for more playing time or a starting position, which is essentially a promotion?

“But coaches have escape clauses written into their contracts.”

Yeah, and you know why? Because they have highly-paid agents representing them. Players can’t have agents. They have zero input on their scholarship contracts. Yes, they are well compensated by given free tuition, fees, books, room and board. But most of these scholarships are one-year commitments from the school. So coaches can lie to recruits, but the players have no recourse.

It’s the players who sweat and are pushed to their human limits. It’s the players who sometimes suffer horrendous injuries. It’s the players who generate millions of dollars in revenue for the schools, the conferences and the NCAA. It’s time the players have more say so in their own careers.

This story was originally published August 13, 2016 at 4:18 PM with the headline "Justice finally served in Maurice Smith’s graduate transfer saga."