Why Satellite Camps Aren't Sustainable for Urban Meyer and Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio — With a little more than seven months to go until national signing day, Ohio State has already secured 16 commitments for its 2016 class, which currently ranks third in the country.

And until today, the Buckeyes managed to put together what could be a historic haul without having held a single satellite camp.

That sentiment changed on Wednesday, when head coach Urban Meyer officially dipped his toes in water that he's admittedly uncomfortable with. Serving as a guest instructor at an FAU camp in Boca Raton, Florida, Meyer and members of his staff took part in their first satellite camp, a practice introduced to the Big Ten a year ago by Penn State's James Franklin and made polarizing by Michigan's Jim Harbaugh this spring.

But regardless of whatever success Ohio State may seemingly see as a result of Wednesday's camp, don't expect the practice to become a habit for the Buckeyes. Meyer even said as much earlier this spring, as he first revealed his program's plan to set up shop in South Florida this summer.

“Am I fan of that? Not really,” Meyer said of satellite camps, which are currently outlawed in the SEC and the ACC. “A big allure to Ohio State is getting them here on campus.”

The three-time national champion head coach went as far as to say he thinks the NCAA should altogether ban the practice of satellite camps, which sees coaches serve as guest instructors at other schools' camps typically outside of their respective regions.

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But with Harbaugh upping the ante, planning an unprecedented 10-stop tour of satellite camps for the summer, Meyer saw no choice but to give it a shot.

"What happens is monkey see, monkey do. ‘They did this, so let’s go do it,'" Meyer said. "If it helps us, we'll do it."

It's entirely too early to tell whether the Buckeyes' foray into the satellite camp territory will be successful, but it's already clear that the FAU-hosted event was a star-studded affair.

According to 247Sports' Josh Newberg, some of South Florida's top prospects turned out for what would have likely been an otherwise under-attended event, including 2016 5-star defensive end Nick Bosa, 2016 4-star defensive tackle Malik Barrow, 2017 5-star wide receiver Trevon Grimes and 2017 4-star wideout Bruce Judson.

And while holding a camp on such fertile recruiting grounds certainly can't hurt Ohio State's cause, the reality is that it may just not be necessary.

Meyer and his staff had already nabbed commitments from Barrow and Judson prior to the camp and have privately felt even better about their standing with both Bosa and Grimes, each of whom is projected to wind up a Buckeye, according to 247Sports' Crystal Ball projections.

A strong presence—particularly since Meyer arrived in late 2011—is nothing new for Ohio State in South Florida, which has given the Buckeyes Joey Bosa (Nick's brother), James Clark, Johnnie Dixon and Torrance Gibson in the past four years. Ohio State's future classes indicate that pipeline won't be coming to an end anytime soon and only appears to be getting stronger.

So if the Buckeyes can attract South Florida's top talent without the help of a satellite camp, why put the effort and resources into running one?

Perhaps Meyer opted to run his first camp in an area where he knew he'd have success, a fail-safe trial that could lead to more ambitious trips into areas like Texas or California. Or maybe it was merely a move to counteract the noise of Harbaugh's "Summer Swarm Tour," which has already helped boost Michigan's 2016 class to the nation's No. 9 ranking.

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But in reality, it's more likely that Meyer was just testing the satellite camp waters, giving a shot to a practice that may be banned nationwide sooner rather than later. Regardless of what his motive was, the Buckeyes head coach admitted that he already knows how he'll be judging whether or not holding a satellite camp was worth it.

“There’s easy ways to evaluate how your camp went," Meyer said. "Did you get anybody out of the camp?... Did people visit? I don’t know that."

Meyer will soon have those answers that he was seeking. But with a national recruiting base already in place and momentum on the Buckeyes' side, don't count on too many more—if any—Ohio State satellite camps to pop up in the near future.

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.