One would think that the middle of the college football offseason just prior to the NFL draft would be a time for programs to focus on preparing for fall kickoffs and hosting spring games, not engaging in media repartee across the country. But, here we are. This past week included both the mundane and sublime, with the usual grumbling about unfair conference advantages this time spiced with humorous, passive-aggressive retorts. The satellite camps that are at the root of the grousing might need a little clarification, and they could have an impact on college recruiting in the future.
An Invaluable Opportunity for All Involved
In another evolution of college recruiting, satellite camps allow football coaches from certain conferences to travel nationwide, becoming visiting camp instructors on the campuses of other universities. This arrangement is mutually beneficial for both guest and host, as having the staff of a major program (like Penn State or Michigan, the two schools at the center of the controversy) raises the profile of the camp, attracts more campers, and thus generates more money for the hosting institution. The visiting coaching staff, on the other hand, gets the invaluable opportunity to see recruits over an extended period of time, face to face, in practice and drill scenarios.
Say a coach has heard a recruit doesn’t perform during the monotony of summer drills or respond well to criticism. Satellite camps give the staff a chance to see and interact with the player in ways tape can’t show. Furthermore, coaching staffs can see athletes who have perhaps flown under their recruiting radar, or flip commitments to other schools. Finally, these camps also benefit the campers, who have an opportunity to get coached by the best in the business, and for the prior-unrecruited, possibly make an impact that might get them noticed and remembered.
So What’s the Problem?
If satellite camps are such a win-win for the campers, hosting institutions, and visiting instructors, why are they dominating the college headlines the past two weeks? This is because not all conferences permit their coaches to attend satellite camps. The SEC, for example, does not allow its coaches to go beyond a fifty mile radius from campus for camp purposes. This includes guest coaching, and so recruiters like Alabama’s Nick Saban must sit at home while Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan staff come to Prattville, home to one of Alabama’s top football powerhouse high schools, and woo local Alabama prospects. Saban can’t attend the Prattville camp, though, as it is beyond the fifty mile radius from Tuscaloosa, and thus his contention that satellite camps are “ridiculous.”
Coaches from the ACC, which also prohibits coaches from attending camps in a similar fashion to the SEC, are similarly miffed. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Louisville’s Bobby Petrino both argue that bringing recruits to campus and not going to where the recruits are is the superior method. Unsurprisingly though, the ever-principled Petrino followed-up that despite not being in favor of satellite camps and preferring to bring recruits to campus, “if it continues, if they don’t restrict the satellite camps, then probably we need to be able to do what everybody else can do.”
Solutions and Ramifications
Although Petrino’s conviction that bringing recruits to campus is important seems tenuous in the face of being at a competitive disadvantage, he is correct that coaches and conferences won’t let such a glaring issue lie. In a moment of what can only be described as backhanded levity, Harbaugh invited “coaches from every college to be involved in our football camp,” and he even built-in a caveat for those restricted SEC and ACC coaches, offering them to be “our keynote speaker.” While Harbaugh seems to be relishing his opportunity to go into the prospect-rich South unfettered, he might not be able to do so for too much longer. ACC commissioner John Swofford is pushing the NCAA for a national ban on guest coaching outside a school’s home area, but also, like Petrino, concedes that without it, the ACC might be forced to join the practice.
One thing is certain: no matter how many glib half-measures Jim Harbaugh offers, in the multi-million dollar world of college recruiting, such an advantageous enterprise as satellite camps won’t remain the provenance of some conferences but not others.
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