Lincoln Riley raises objection to Chandler Morris’ transfer, says it’s ‘unhealthy for college football’

Intra-conference transfers are nothing new in college football.

The SEC dealt with a high-profile transfer when Maurice Smith transferred from Alabama to Georgia in 2016, after he was previously blocked from leaving the Crimson Tide.

Now the Big 12 is dealing with it, and the issue involves QB Chandler Morris leaving Oklahoma for TCU. Lincoln Riley says his opposition to Morris’ immediate eligibility at TCU is about a core belief that you shouldn’t be able to transfer intra-conference without any kind of penalty, Jason Kersey of The Athletic reported. He said it’s bad for the game.

“It’s going to bring a lot of negatives I don’t know that we want in this game,” Riley said.

The issue was raised when TCU head coach Gary Patterson said Monday that Morris “still hasn’t been released” by the Sooners when asked if he could be eligible in 2021. Riley said the immediate transfer to other institutions was a good rule to change, but the intra-conference nature of transfers makes it complicated.

“It’s something we’ve been adamantly opposed to for a long time,” he said. “I get the landscape is changing, we’re watching that and we’ll adapt as the world changes.”

Riley also said it has nothing to do with Morris as a person, and that he’s going to a good program. But if a rule would hurt the game, Riley said he wouldn’t just sit back and do the politically correct thing.

“It’s going to bring a lot of negatives I don’t know that we want in this game.” — Lincoln Riley on intraconference transfers.

He said this has nothing to do with Chandler Morris, but instead that the situation is “unhealthy for college football” pic.twitter.com/NvwxgfwL3p

— Danielle Dwyer (@DanielleDwyerTV) March 24, 2021

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.