The SEC acted like the big bully that it’s long been perceived to be with the way it pushed for the NCAA’s ruling on banning satellite football camps and clinics.
You can tack on the word crybaby, too.
The league has practically cornered the market on the best college football talent in the country, but then a couple of big, bad Big Ten programs came into its territory and tried to set up shop, and like a bigwig lemonade chain telling a couple of kids with a lemonade stand they needed a business license, it didn’t stop until they were run out of town.
The NCAA announced a ban of satellite camps on Friday. These camps give high school players who would otherwise fall through the cracks the opportunity to get noticed. Official campus visits for recruits are paid for by the host school, but any unofficial visits, which many recruits make, have to be paid for out-of-pocket at the expense of the recruit. Satellite camps were the perfect remedy for recruits who can’t afford those expenses.
Once again, it seems the NCAA can’t make a ruling without contradicting its claim that it keeps the interests of student-athletes at the front of its mission.
Were these teams doing anything wrong? No. Were they doing anyone any harm? Not really. Before Friday, NCAA rules did not prevent coaches from guest coaching at camps held outside of their schools’ own facilities, and it’s not like they were plucking big-time recruits left and right away from SEC programs.
So what’s the big deal? That’s my question exactly. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is apparently pretty good at pressing buttons and rubbing people the wrong way.
The SEC and ACC forbid their coaches from participating in satellite camps, so they shouted with megaphones into the ears of the NCAA until they went hoarse, saying these off-campus camps somehow give Michigan and other teams from the Big Ten and Pac-12 an unfair advantage and that the playing field needed to be leveled.
The playing field was never level, and schools like Michigan never had the upper hand. They’re just trying to keep up in the race. The SEC has an inherent advantage being based in the South. These programs barely have to go out of their backyards to find world-class talent, so it’s no surprise schools up north and out west think they have to take advantage of every loophole they can.
“There are great players here, right?” said Florida coach Jim McElwain. “There’s a reason every school in the country comes here and recruits. So I think for them it’s trying to gain an edge and give (players) an opportunity to practice in great weather. I don’t plan on taking ours to Michigan. I’m all for what (Harbaugh is) doing.”
McElwain is the only SEC coach who has gone on the record and supported satellite camps, in large part because he took advantage of them when he was at Colorado State.
“We actually did that a little bit at Colorado State, and it helped immensely our ability to take our brand to someone else,” he said. “It was hard to get the guys to come on campus and get here, (and at Colorado State) we had to make a big push for it because that’s a huge part of recruiting.”
With the SEC and ACC playing the role of greedy lobbyists toward the NCAA, they keep the largest portion of the pie and give the crumbs to Group of Five schools like Colorado State. And Georgia Southern.
You might have heard that Ohio State was scheduled to hold a satellite camp at Central Gwinnett High School in June, but according to an ESPN article, Georgia Southern was also scheduled to be at that camp, alongside Georgia State, West Georgia, Kennesaw State and Appalachian State.
Georgia Southern isn’t the type of program to make excuses or complain about the unfairness of life, but the NCAA ruling doesn’t do anything to narrow the gap between the Power Five and Group of Five conferences.
The SEC doesn’t care while aiming to take out a loophole against its biggest competitors. A bunch of Group of Five teams and hundreds of recruits trying to make it to the biggest program they can got caught in the crossfire.
After Friday’s ruling, it’s pretty hard to defend the league’s image.
