Satellite Camps Take Big Ten Recruiting Battles Down South for Urban Meyer

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Asked for his thoughts on hosting offseason satellite camps earlier this week, Urban Meyer didn't pull any punches when it came to the controversial recruiting practice.

"I think that should be outlawed. I don't think you should be able to do that," Meyer said. "I think you should just recruit on campus and do a good job."

But recruiting sometimes requires one to step outside of his comfort zone.

That even goes for Meyer, who has inked four consecutive top-seven classes since arriving at Ohio State in 2012. Meyer may not like it, but the reigning national head coach is admittedly willing to try a satellite camp while the loophole remains open in the Big Ten, despite scrutiny from the SEC and ACC.

"If it helps us, we'll do it," Meyer said. "And I think we might try one this year."

The fourth-year Buckeyes head coach said that no plans to hold such a camp have been finalized and discussions on the subject among the Ohio State staff have been ongoing. But should the Buckeyes play guest hosts to a camp, it would be hard to see it as anything but a direct response to Jim Harbaugh and Michigan's upcoming satellite-heavy summer.

Per GoBlueWolverine.com, the Wolverines staff will spend the early part of June outside of the Midwest Region, hosting camps in Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas and California. As opposed to the SEC and ACC, which both place restrictions on their schools hosting camps farther than 50 miles away from their campuses, the Big Ten has no such guidelines in place.

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Meyer claims that Ohio State's interest in holding such camp has nothing to do with any other school and would only happen if it best benefited the Buckeyes. But it's worth noting that when James Franklin and Penn State first made headlines by hosting satellite camps a year ago, Meyer and his staff stood pat.

"What happens is monkey see, monkey do. ‘They did this, so let’s go do it,'" Meyer said. “There’s easy ways to evaluate how your camp went. ‘Well, it went good.’ Did you get anybody out of the camp? No. Did people visit? I don’t know that. That’s something, if we do it, we’re not going to do it because some other schools are trying it.”

Based on those standards, the Nittany Lions' foray into satellite camps was hardly successful.

Hosting camps at Stetson University in Florida and Georgia State, Penn State failed to pull a player from the entire South Region in its 2015 class. Of the 25 signees in the Nittany Lions' 2015 class, 23 came from Penn State's traditional Northeast pipeline, with the only exceptions hailing from Indiana and Wisconsin.

Perhaps as a direct response, Franklin has opted to move this year's satellite camp closer to home, with The Virginian-Pilot's Harry Minium reporting that the Penn State staff will help host a camp at Old Dominion in Virginia on June 18.

So if he's against it and the only known data showed little-to-no success, why would Meyer—who has successfully recruited players from Florida, New Jersey, Texas, North Carolina and California throughout his time at Ohio State—even look into trying a satellite camp?

The answer remains unclear, but Michigan's presence is difficult to ignore.

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Even before hosting his planned camp at Prattville High School in Alabama on June 5, Harbaugh has found success at the school by picking up a commitment from 3-star fullback Kingston Davis. If the positive buzz he's spent the offseason building is already helping him land prospects in the heart of the South, it's not a stretch to think he could find similar success in Florida, Texas and especially California, where he already has strong ties thanks to his days at Stanford and with the San Francisco 49ers.

Meyer didn't give any insight into where he would entertain holding such camp, but strengthening Ohio State's connections in Florida, Georgia and Texas would all seem to make sense. The evidence may not suggest that even being worth the Buckeyes' while just yet, but with Harbaugh's big summer looming, OSU would be better off safe than sorry.

And while it appears that's the approach Meyer is taking, he's also made it clear it's not his preference.

“Am I a fan of that? Not really," Meyer said. "A big allure to Ohio State is getting them here on campus."

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.