Nick Saban Addresses Grad Transfer Rule at SEC Spring Meetings

Alabama head coach Nick Saban is down in Destin, FL for the SEC Spring Meetings with other coaches in the conference. But instead of enjoying the beautiful beaches of Florida while celebrating another national championship win, he's addressing adding quarterbacks to the roster and the on-going grad transfer rule within the conference.

OL Brandon Kennedy has graduated from Alabama, but instead of playing for the defending national champions as a grad student, Kennedy has requested a transfer to either Tennessee or in-state rivals Auburn, a transfer that has been blocked by Alabama.

But the SEC rule is players can't transfer within the same conference, and as Nick Saban addressed with the media yesterday, he wanted everyone to know he doesn't make the rules, he just follows them.

"I don't think it should be on me, I think we should change the rule," Saban said. "If we agree in the SEC at these meetings that we are going to have free agency in our league and everybody can go wherever they want to go when they graduate and that's whats best for the game, then I think that's what we should do then Brandon Kennedy can go wherever he wants to go."

"But if we don't do that, why is it on me? Because we have a conference rule that says he can't do it, and he can do it but he suppose to sit out for a year. So why is it on me? It's not even my decision, it's a conference rule. I always give people releases, and he has a release to go wherever he wants to go but the conference rule says he can't go in the conference."

Saban also explained why the grad transfer rule is intact and he believes it could be a benefit to certain programs within the conference.

"I think that's something we should address as a league, Saban said. "If we allow that to happen in our league i think it will benefit some schools more than others and i think we are one of the schools that it would benefit, but i'm still not for it."

For the full Saban conference from the SEC Spring Meetings, make sure you watch the video above the article.