Truth and consequences
Alabama football coach Saban critiques ‘liberal’ waivers in NCAA transfer portal
HOOVER, Ala. – Get this straight: Nick Saban isn’t against the transfer portal.
Alabama’s 67-year-old head coach just doesn’t like the NCAA’s “liberal” trend of granting eligibility waivers that has led to what he fears most: free agency in college football.
“I think the spirit of the transfer portal in and of itself is a positive thing for players,” Saban said Wednesday at SEC Media Days. “The issue with the transfer portal is we’ve gotten very liberal in giving people waivers. So when we do that, it becomes free agency, which I don’t think is good for college football (and) I don’t think it’s good for fans.”
In the nine months since its inception in October, the NCAA transfer portal has been a lightning rod for opinions both for and against the new process for how athletes transfer, placing more authority in the hands of the players to determine when and where they decide to go.
What Saban takes exception is with how easily it can be for those transferring players to leave one team and immediately become eligible to play for another team.
According to Saban, at one point this summer there had been at least 65 eligibility waivers granted by the NCAA to transferring players. For him, that was far too many.
It’s because of that “liberal” trend that Saban made the suggestion to again require all transferring players – or at least transferring underclassmen – to sit out a season in-residence as a consequence for backing off their commitment to their original team.
“In my opinion, if we’re going to have a transfer portal that’s good for the players, then we ought to have a rule that says, regardless of what happens when you transfer, you have to sit out a year,” Saban said. “We make commitments to players for four years, (and) they make commitments to us to be in our program. It may not work out for everybody and they may have a better opportunity someplace else, but if they have to sit out for a year, it would be a consequence for them in terms of their commitment.”
The NCAA Division I Council this summer altered four guidelines for granting immediate-eligibility waivers, most of which allow for greater involvement from the athletics director of the outgoing student-athlete’s original school. These adjusted guidelines are expected to be more restrictive, including
specific language that could make granting immediate eligibility more difficult.
Saban, though, would prefer even greater restrictions – or more accurately, “consequences” – for a student-athlete who opts to pursue other opportunities away from where he originally signed at out of high school. To Saban, if a program must deal with the result of losing a player it dedicated time and resources to developing, so too should the player lose something – in this case immediate eligibility.
“Look, we feel like it’s a challenge for us to create an atmosphere and environment for our players that we’re providing the leadership and the support to do the things that are going to help them be more successful in life,” Saban said. “So, you know, if that’s not what they want to do, and they choose not to do it, that’s got to be their choice.”
Alabama has had eight total players enter the NCAA transfer portal since the end of last season, including former
starting quarterback Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma), backup offensive guard Richie Petitbon (Illinois), reserve defensive back Kyriq McDonald (Cincinnati) and most recently backup tight end Kedrick James, who has yet to find a new school after entering the portal last week.
Rising sophomore outside linebacker Eyabi Anoma also briefly flirted with the portal in early February before pulling his name back a day later after discussions with Saban.
Outside of Anoma and Hurts, none of the Tide defections was expected to play a major role on this year’s team.
“Some people don’t like to believe the truth,” Saban said. “You know, there’s three things about the truth I tell my kids all of the time about. If you don’t tell me the truth, I can’t trust you. If I can’t trust you, we can’t have a relationship. But truth is important.
“I think we all have to tell the truth. I think we have to live the truth, but I also think sometimes you got to believe the truth. So when somebody tells you
something you really don’t want to hear that you might need to do that’s going to help you be more successful, you got to believe it. Some people have a hard time with that.”
On the flip side, Alabama has dipped into the transfer portal only once this offseason, bringing in former Florida State offensive lineman Landon Dickerson, a redshirt junior with two years of eligibility remaining, to help provide depth. Dickerson is expected to enroll in August in time for preseason camp.
“We have not been very active (with the portal). We’re usually full from a scholarship standpoint, so we haven’t really been active, you know, trying to go and recruit transfers from other schools,” Saban said. “We look at who is in the graduate transfer pool, and if there’s somebody that can give us immediate help on our team, we have had several graduate transfers. So we really haven’t been active at all in, you know, that part of how we bring players to our team.”