I'm tickled to death to have Jalen Hurts at OU. It sort of feels like we're borrowing Alabama's quarterback, though.
I'm also glad Lincoln Riley did the right thing by releasing Austin Kendall for immediate eligibility at West Virginia. Sure, there is the danger of letting program knowledge go to a regular opponent. Still, you have to do the right thing by the kid.
It's a B12 rule that allows graduate transfers to go to another school within the conference, but also requires release from the former school in order to gain immediate eligibility. Without a release, the transfer has to sit out a year.
In the Baker Mayfield situation, enough B12 schools voted to change the rules regarding transfers of walk-ons to give him another year, which gave him a Heisman Trophy season and OU an appearance in the CFP. I know one is a scholarship athlete and the other was technically a walk-on, but we don't need to be blocking a graduate transfer within the league when B12 schools voted in our favor in the Mayfield situation.
Plus, the graduate transfer rule is supposed to be for the benefit of the athlete. The guy did everything he was supposed to do, and graduated in 3+ years. He simply got beaten out by some superior talents. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. They had to be shamed into it, but OU finally did right by him.
As for Jalen Hurts, I don't think he'll be wearing a "SEC Graduate" patch on his OU uniform.