Maik Zaire Could Play a Big Part in This Week's SEC Meetings in Destin

RTR91

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Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire reportedly wants to spend his final season at Florida, but he needs the SEC to adjust its rule for graduate transfers for the move to come to fruition.

The quarterback received his release from Notre Dame all the way back in November and graduated soon after. Many schools have shown interest in Zaire throughout the process, but he reportedly narrowed his choices down to Texas and Florida in recent weeks.

Because he graduated from Notre Dame, Zaire would be immediately eligible at most schools, but Florida is not one of them because the SEC has certain academic requirements for graduate transfers. Because those requirements were not met by past UF grad transfers — ex-Georgia Tech linebacker Anthony Harrell and ex-Fordham lineman Mason Halter (both in 2015) — the school is not able to add grad transfers for three years.

Here is the specific bylaw (part B) that is affecting Zaire:

Knowing what is at play, do teams vote with the intention of blocking the transfer or vote in favor of a change for their own possible future use?
 

B1GTide

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Why have the rule if you are going to ignore it the first time it is applied? Either take the rule off the books or enforce it.
 

LA4Bama

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I don't see how they can let Zaire go to FL without losing face. The rule is meant to maintain academic standards for graduate transfers. If the conference changes the rule, it either means they are lowering the academic standard or else they are keeping the standard on paper but removing any teeth from enforcement. Either way, it just makes graduate school into a racket for the football team.

The way that article is written, a casual reader easily might see it as saying Zaire doesn't qualify at FL. But none of those listed rules have anything to do with him at the moment. They have to do with students from last year who didn't live up to their end of the bargain. The issue is not whether he qualifies to go to FL (he does); it's whether FL qualifies to receive any GT (it doesn't). I'm not sure if that article is trying to stir the pot by making it seem like this is about Zaire (perhaps trying to echo the Maurice Smith transfer last year), but really this is not about him at all. There is nothing unique of about Zaire in this case, so there is no basis for an exception.
 

RTR91

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I don't see how they can let Zaire go to FL without losing face. The rule is meant to maintain academic standards for graduate transfers. If the conference changes the rule, it either means they are lowering the academic standard or else they are keeping the standard on paper but removing any teeth from enforcement. Either way, it just makes graduate school into a racket for the football team.

The way that article is written, a casual reader easily might see it as saying Zaire doesn't qualify at FL. But none of those listed rules have anything to do with him at the moment. They have to do with students from last year who didn't live up to their end of the bargain. The issue is not whether he qualifies to go to FL (he does); it's whether FL qualifies to receive any GT (it doesn't). I'm not sure if that article is trying to stir the pot by making it seem like this is about Zaire (perhaps trying to echo the Maurice Smith transfer last year), but really this is not about him at all. There is nothing unique of about Zaire in this case, so there is no basis for an exception.
His transfer has been one of the more prominent story lines in an overall quiet off season. Therefore, the article is written to discuss where he's rumored to be favoring, but he has to wait to see if the SEC decides to change the rule. The third graph of the article says in pretty plain terms the issue is because of two other transfers, not Zaire.
 

rgw

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Why have the rule if you are going to ignore it the first time it is applied? Either take the rule off the books or enforce it.
Well, they've already established the precedent with Maurice Smith w/r/t to following rules once a name team wants something that flies in the face of it...
 

Bazza

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Knowing what is at play, do teams vote with the intention of blocking the transfer or vote in favor of a change for their own possible future use?
I'll take door number 2, Monty.

From what I understand...our conference is the only one in the NCAA that has this rule.

I believe that there was some discussion to remove it before the Zaire transfer situation surfaced.
 

KrAzY3

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Well, they've already established the precedent with Maurice Smith w/r/t to following rules once a name team wants something that flies in the face of it...
Wasn't part of allowing Maurice Smith to transfer some sort of standard in terms of academic requirements as well? If they say the academic requirements don't matter either, they'll have made an even bigger farce of the whole thing.
 

LA4Bama

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Wasn't part of allowing Maurice Smith to transfer some sort of standard in terms of academic requirements as well? If they say the academic requirements don't matter either, they'll have made an even bigger farce of the whole thing.
Whatever role academics played for Smith was minor. I think he claimed UGA had a program he wanted to attend, so it may have come in as a sort of reason to give him an exception to attend, but the key issue was that we could play UGA in the seccg so it was an unfair advantage, and then following a coach (smart) is also a no-no, or rather was up till then a no-no.
 

KrAzY3

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Whatever role academics played for Smith was minor. I think he claimed UGA had a program he wanted to attend, so it may have come in as a sort of reason to give him an exception to attend, but the key issue was that we could play UGA in the seccg so it was an unfair advantage, and then following a coach (smart) is also a no-no, or rather was up till then a no-no.
I mean in order to grant the waiver, as I recall he had to make certain academic commitments. Essentially to back up the claim that the transfer was based on academic grounds. If you do away with that, as Nick Saban puts it, you really do just have free agency.
 

LA4Bama

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I mean in order to grant the waiver, as I recall he had to make certain academic commitments. Essentially to back up the claim that the transfer was based on academic grounds. If you do away with that, as Nick Saban puts it, you really do just have free agency.
Maybe so but if so they were cosmetic to help the SEC save face. It was a lot of spin in the end. Sankey just decided the PR nightmare wasn't worth the principle.
 

B1GTide

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GrayTide

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If a player with remaining eligibility qualifies to transfer academically and his HC grants his release; then the rule should allow the coach to put transfer restrictions on certain schools he deems appropriate or none if he so desires. This should be a fair trade off for both the player and his former coach.
 

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