But on Wednesday morning, host Mike Greenberg eviscerated new Georgia head coach Kirby Smart for the policies he is implementing in Athens, specifically, the refusal to release players from their scholarships so they can attend SEC schools or Miami, where former Georgia head coach Mark Richt now coaches.

MORE: Boom or bust new QBs | A 68-team CFB playoff bracket?

“Shame on you Kirby Smart,” Greenberg said early Wednesday morning. “You’re scared of some 19-year-old kid going someplace, who’s obviously barely playing for you and that’s why he wants to transfer in the first place or has whatever other reason to go someplace else. And you’re so terrified to allow him to go to someone you might play on your schedule?"

Say what you will about Greenberg and his typically “cool-dad” brand of sports talk, but in this case he is both right to be upset and accurate in his assessment.

“Shame on you. You’re making millions of dollars and this kid’s one chance in life to play college football. He should be allowed to go wherever the hell he wants and for some coach to sit there and put restrictions on because he’s in the conference or on his schedule is a disgrace and it shouldn’t be allowed."

“Kirby Smart may never speak to me again and I don’t care. This is a disgrace, an absolute disgrace. If a kid decides for whatever reason to go from one school to another, he should be allowed to no matter what. You got to take whatever job you want and get paid millions of dollars."

Several months ago, reserve running back A.J. Turman informed the incoming coach that he intended to transfer. On Monday, Turman told Dawg Nation that Smart was restricting his options to eliminate Miami, Georgia Tech and all SEC schools.

Smart explained his reason for doing so.

“I wanted to set the precedent for the future that kids would not be able to go to Miami right away,” Smart said. “It’s very important that we understand that, and that’s pretty much standard operating procedure when a coach leaves one place, that a kid can’t go there with the coach. That’s important to me that people understand that.”

It’s a change in philosphy from Richt’s 15 seasons in Athens when the university held no restrictions on transfers.

The NCAA wants you to believe that student-athletes attend universities for the university, not the coaches, and that is a bunch of bunk. Smart just left Alabama to take a better job at an SEC rival, yet won’t let a student-athlete do the same.

This hardly is the first time transfer restrictions have become a hot-button issue. Two seasons ago, then Wisconsin basketball coach Bo Ryan refused to allow then-redshirt freshman Jarrod Uthoff to transfer to a litany of schools including all Big Ten schools, all ACC schools (because, you know, the ACC/Big Ten Challenge), Iowa State (Uthoff is from Iowa), Marquette (Wisconsin’s in-state rival) and Florida (future non-conference opponent).

Ryan wasn’t ripped by the media. He was skewered; lambasted.

He even went on the aforementioned “Mike & Mike” to defend himself. His only defense? That it was standard operating procedure and that schools did it all the time.

Eventually, Ryan relented and allowed Uthoff to transfer to Iowa, where he turned into one of the nation’s premier scorers and shot-blockers. Wisconsin faced Uthoff’s Hawkeyes five times since he transferred out of Madison, and the Badgers won all five games. But sure, it was a just a “standard operating procedure,” right?

MORE: Familiar faces in new places | Early arrivals

In 2015, Turman saw exactly zero carries for zero yards. In 2014, he rushed zero times for a grand total of zero yards. But it’s important to Smart that Turman remain in a place he’s unhappy with because of a contract.

Coaches have been doing it for years, so why change?

You know what else coaches have been doing for years?

The exact same things they try to restrict players from doing, and it is a disgrace. 

On Sunday afternoon, Stephen F. Austin lost a heartbreaker to Notre Dame in the second-round of the NCAA Tournament. On Monday afternoon, roughly 24 hours after the Lumberjacks’ season came to an end, head coach Brad Underwood accepted the job at Oklahoma State. In May of 2014, roughly two months after the Lumberjacks were bounced from the NCAA Tournament after winning their Round of 64 opener against VCU, Underwood signed an eight-year contract to remain in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Less than two years later, Underwood is on to bigger and better things.

Why again are student-athletes, the ones who line the pockets of coaches, athletic directors and school presidents, held to higher standards than the people benefiting from their services?

There is no good answer, other than “standard operating procedure,” of course, and that is a disgrace.