Former Georgia safety Major Burns transfers to LSU

The Burns transfer is the third recent example of an SEC player going from one school within the conference to another. Alabama brought in Tennessee linebacker Henry To’o To’o, while Georgia snapped up Alabama defensive back Brandon Turnage on Friday.

Related: Georgia cornerback competition heats up with Alabama transfer Brandon Turnage

The Turnage addition for Georgia was due in part to Burns’ departure. The Bulldogs were not very deep at the safety position after Burns entered the transfer portal. Turnage was a member of the 2019 signing class and played in four games at Alabama over the span of two seasons.

Georgia does return its two starting safeties in Lewis Cine and Chris Smith. Georgia also brought in West Virginia transfer Tykee Smith from the transfer portal.

The SEC is still yet to make any changes to its intraconference transfer rule, which currently states that players transferring from one SEC school to the next must sit out a season. The league is expected to vote on the matter on June 3. The NCAA recently changed its transfer policy to allow all players the opportunity to transfer one-time without having to sit out a season.

The PAC-12 changed its intraconference transfer rule on Monday, joining the likes of the ACC and Big 12 in doing so.

Burns was a long-time LSU commit before decommitting and flipping to Georgia before the start of the early signing period in the 2020 recruiting class.

Georgia and LSU are not set to play any time soon. The last regular-season matchup between the two sides came back in 2018, when LSU beat Georgia 36-16. The two teams did play in the 2019 SEC Championship Game, which LSU won 37-10. The Tigers went 5-5 last season.

Georgia will open the 2021 season on Sept. 4, when it takes on the Clemson Tigers. That game is set for a 7:30 p.m. start time and can be seen on ABC.

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