Kirby Smart's Transfer Policy Isn't the Problem, Absence of Uniformity Is

In Monday's Week 1 spring practice roundup for Georgia, I mentioned that first-year head coach Kirby Smart went through his first "dust-up" as the head coach of the Bulldogs with the minor controversy created from the transfer restrictions he put on former running back A.J. Turman that prevented him from going on scholarship at SEC schools and Miami.

"Minor" being the operative word.

Smart went in depth on his transfer policy with Seth Emerson of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution over the weekend:

"

Moving forward, where it’s more important to know that we will not release kids to SEC schools unless it’s a special situation. And we will handle those situations on a case by case basis. There are very few situations where you want a kid going to somebody on your schedule, or somebody in your league. That’s pretty much standard operating procedure. And the reasons for that are two or three-fold: You don’t want a kid being negative in recruiting when he’s at another place and you’re trying to protect the interest of your team and the rest of your team here. And you don’t want to have to play against them for obvious reasons. So we’ll handle those going forward.

"

Despite that, Mike Greenberg, co-host of Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio and ESPN2, shared his thoughts about the situation on Wednesday morning:

A disgrace?

Really?

That's not only a little aggressive. It's extremely aggressive.

Restricting Turman from going to another conference team makes a ton of sense, and as Bleacher Report's Adam Kramer noted in 2014, it is par for the course for other head coaches (until public backlash forces change).

Smart initially blocking Turman from going to Miami is a slightly different animal since the Hurricanes and Bulldogs aren't scheduled to meet on the football field.

But the lure of former coach Mark Richt (the same coach who gave Turman precisely zero carries in two seasons at Georgia) was enough for Smart to take a precautionary measure to ensure that his current players knew that they didn't have an open door to go play for their former coach.

That's well within the rules, and Smart should not be criticized for it—especially considering Turman doesn't even want to go to Miami, as Anthony Dasher of Rivals.com noted on Twitter:

Smart isn't the disgrace.

He's just doing his job in the same way that his peers—other than Richt—do in similar situations.

If you're mad about this situation, be mad at the lack of uniformity of transfer rules in college football. Be mad that this is another aspect of amateur athletics that places a disproportionate amount of power in coaches and not enough in the hands of athletes compensated by scholarship.

Be mad at the system—not Smart.

John Bazemore/Associated Press

So how does it get fixed?

It's rather simple. Create uniformity within the Power Five conferences, which now have legislative autonomy.

Make that a priority.

Full cost of attendance stipends are already in play, and the Power Five conferences have several other items on the docket to improve player welfare, including health care.

There are several common-sense solutions that should make this very easy for those conference commissioners if/when they decide to address transfer restrictions:

• Allow undergraduate football players to transfer to any school outside of their current institution's conference and go on scholarship immediately, except designated, in-state, out-of-conference rivals that are scheduled to meet at any point during the duration of the player's remaining eligibility (including the transfer year in which he must sit out).
• Undergraduate players with special circumstances (sick relative, family needs, etc.) can transfer anywhere and play immediately as long as they get a waiver from the NCAA.
• If a head coach leaves a school on his own volition, players can go on scholarship immediately anywhere but must sit out the mandated transfer year within the FBS.
• If a head coach is fired by a school, the new head coach has the right to prevent players from going on scholarship immediately at programs within the conference and on future schedules through the end of each player's individual eligibility. It can also place one restriction on another school, which could be an in-state rival from another conference, the new program for the former head coach or that of a position coach.

If you don't like some or all of these proposed rules, that's totally fine. That's not the point.

Other ideas are welcome, and there should be a discussion on how the transfer process should operate in the new world order of autonomy within the Power Five conferences.

The point is that Smart and all head coaches who place transfer restrictions on players based on conference affiliation and rivalries shouldn't be criticized for looking out for themselves, their programs and their own best interests.

That's what they are paid to do. I'm honestly surprised Richt avoided heat for his lenient transfer policy for so long considering Georgia hasn't won an SEC title since 2005.

Smart is just doing his job as the head football coach of the Georgia Bulldogs.

It's not a disgrace and isn't something he should apologize for.

Ever.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.