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SEC should adapt its transfer bylaws and embrace athlete free agency. Here's why. | Toppmeyer

Blake Toppmeyer
USA TODAY NETWORK

College athletics is about to enter the golden age of plundering.

This spring, the NCAA is expected to adopt a one-time transfer exception rule that would allow first-time transfers in all sports to have immediate eligibility at their new school.

This one-time transfer exception already exists in certain sports. But, under the current NCAA rules, transferring undergraduate athletes in five sports – football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and men's hockey – must sit out a season unless they receive a transfer waiver.

If the NCAA approves a one-time transfer exception for all sports, the ball moves into the court of individual conferences. Many conferences, including the SEC, have bylaws requiring players who transfer within the conference to sit out a season.

The ACC already acted and ruled that its intraconference transfers will have immediate eligibility. The SEC should follow suit.

Embrace athlete free agency and allow athletes who transfer within the conference to play immediately, rather than risk them departing for other conferences and depleting the SEC's talent pool.

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Changing the SEC’s bylaw would require a majority vote from the conference’s chancellors and presidents.

Some SEC coaches and athletics directors might be apprehensive about allowing transferring athletes to have immediate eligibility at another conference school.

If the SEC changes its bylaw, an athlete could play for Auburn in the Iron Bowl one season, then transfer and play for Alabama the next year.

And, you'll have the usual concerns about tampering for athletes and that opening the door to intraconference transfers would allow the rich to get richer. Alabama coach Nick Saban conceivably could take his pick of the best SEC players who enter the transfer portal.

But, if the SEC keeps its bylaw requiring intraconference transfers to sit a season, then the league's transferring talent would be encouraged to exit the conference in favor of immediate eligibility elsewhere.

You can bet schools like Clemson, Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma and Texas hope the SEC will keep its current bylaw on the books. 

At least one SEC coach realizes that.

“Why would you want players to transfer and not be able to stay within the conference and make your conference better, but be able to go make other conferences better?” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said. “I would not understand that.”

Me either.

Every coach’s goal should be for athletes to enjoy their experience enough that they won’t want to transfer. But this is the era of the transfer, and the SEC needs to position itself accordingly. The goal should be to keep as much talent as possible within the SEC.

Changing the bylaw wouldn’t only help Alabama.

Alabama doesn’t have enough spots for every transfer, and it does not want every transfer. Changing the bylaw would help Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Missouri, South Carolina and any other SEC school in need of a boost.

Need help at left tackle? See if any Alabama or Georgia players entered the transfer portal. Maybe that player was a backup at his previous SEC school, but he might be good enough to start at Mississippi State or Tennessee or any number of other SEC programs.

Any skilled recruiter should embrace a second opportunity to recruit an athlete who initially began his or her career at another SEC institution.

Already, SEC coaches have capitalized on this opportunity with graduate transfers, who don’t have to sit out a season even if they transfer within the SEC.

Take Brandon Kennedy, for example. Kennedy was a backup offensive lineman at Alabama before transferring to Tennessee, where he gained immediate eligibility as a graduate transfer. He became a two-year starter for the Vols.

Allowing immediate eligibility for undergraduate intraconference transfers would create more of these opportunities like this for roster enhancement.

It also would do away with the need for a transfer waiver.

Under current bylaws, undergraduate transfers in sports like football and basketball require an NCAA waiver to avoid sitting out a year. If you’re an undergraduate athlete transferring from one SEC school to another, you require an additional conference waiver from commissioner Greg Sankey.

The waiver process, while perhaps well-intentioned, became a mess of inconsistency, grumbling and lawyer posturing.

Last year, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Kentucky officials cried foul when intraconference football transfers Cade Mays, Otis Reese and Joey Gatewood, respectively, endured a prolonged process to gain an SEC waiver for immediate eligibility.

After some delay, Sankey issued waivers to all three, but he encouraged conference leaders to evaluate their bylaws ahead of the 2021-22 athletic season.

“Our member institutions have been clear in the past that they oppose immediate eligibility for intraconference transfers,” Sankey said in a statement in September. “Given the increased number of waiver requests this year, and a changing national landscape related to student-athlete transfer issues, it is evident that the current transfer bylaw must undergo a thorough review by Conference membership.”

In other words, stop asking Sankey to play judge and jury and then complaining when his ruling doesn’t go in the athlete’s favor.

University leaders have the power to change the bylaw.

Join the plunder party.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.