Kermit Davis was a highly-successful head coach at Middle Tennessee. He led the Blue Raiders to back-to-back Conference USA championships and NCAA Tournament first round victories in 2016-17, and in 2018 guided Middle Tennessee to a 24-6 regular season with a C-USA regular season championship.
That success led Davis to take the Ole Miss job last month, which caused Middle Tennessee to hire UNC-Asheville head coach Nick McDevitt as Davis's replacement.
But with Davis's departure, Middle Tennessee AD Chris Massaro let it be known that the three recruits who signed with the Blue Raiders in the fall were granted a free release to transfer elsewhere should they so choose.
We've argued previously that granting players free releases to transfer -- the same right Davis used to further his career, and one that Middle Tennessee used in luring McDevitt away from UNC-Asheville -- is a necessary step in today's day and age.
Clearly, Massaro agrees, noting that he'd like the signees to stick with Middle Tennessee, but he wasn't going to lock the players into a contract that wasn't the right fit for them. Also, inherent to Massaro's argument above is that, yes, you sign with a school, but the coaching staff at that school is incredibly important in each player's experience at said school.