What to Expect from 2016 SEC Football Spring Meetings

The SEC's heavy-hitters will meet at the Sandestin Hilton in Destin, Florida, next week from May 31-June 3, when head coaches, athletic directors and presidents convene for the annual spring meeting session.

The last few years of the event have been dominated by satellite camp talk, revenue distribution, the SEC Network and conference expansion.

One change from previous years is that, according to a release emailed by the conference, revenue distribution won't be announced at the conclusion of the four-day event, rather, it will be released after the conference's fiscal year in October. 

What will be the main storylines this year? Let's get you ready for the four-day event with a weekend primer.

Satellite, In My Eyes

Ralph Russo/Associated Press

Yes, the NCAA got it right when it reversed the ban on satellite camps and opened the floodgates for teams from every conference. 

No, it won't stay that way forever.

Michigan has 35 satellite camps set up in June, according to Clint Brewster of 247Sports.com. In case you need confirmation, yes, there are still only 30 days in the month of June.

Overkill?

Certainly. But it also seems like Michigan, among other schools that are going on the satellite camp World Tour, are taking advantage of this summer perhaps with the idea that things might not be this way forever.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey will likely step to the podium on Friday at the close of spring meetings and deliver a proposal that will shape the satellite-camp debate for years to come.

What will that be? It's fair to say that some camps are beneficial, especially to teams like Missouri and Arkansas that love to recruit Texas, and Kentucky, which loves to hit Ohio. 

Expect something along the lines of a specific window in June in which teams can send coaches to "guest-coach" at the camps of other schools, a specific number of camps that a Power Five school can have a presence during that window and guidelines on what kind of camps (high school, junior college, etc.) are allowed.

Spring Break Anthem

Speaking of Michigan, expect the SEC to follow the Pac-12's lead and keep spring break for relaxation.

As Jon Solomon of CBSSports.com noted earlier in the week, the Pac-12 already has started the push to stop trips like Michigan's week-long spring practice session that took place in March at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. 

The SEC will follow suit.

While Michigan's IMG trip gets lumped into the satellite-camp debate at times, these are two totally different issues. While also serving as a marketing ploy, camps do provide access for players to coaches and vice versa, which benefits everybody.

Michigan's trip to IMG had nothing to do with that and was all about making an impression at a high school football factory.

There are only so many of those high school powers in the country, and the window for college spring breaks is about five weeks. College football administrators can't let high school programs determine which colleges gain that recruiting advantage. 

Before Michigan fans sprint to the comment section and complain, I know the players enjoyed the trip to Bradenton and it isn't going to be what makes or breaks a national championship campaign. All high schools want as many colleges represented at satellite camps as possible, but those colleges won't go spend a week during spring practice with any other schools. 

Michigan's IMG trip was innovative, but the SEC will join the Pac-12 and make a point to prevent it from happening again. 

Improving Player Behavior

The SEC took extraordinary steps last year when it announced at spring meetings that it would invoke the "Jonathan Taylor rule," which prevents potential transfer players with a history of sexual violence, sexual assault and domestic violence from coming to the conference without a waiver.

It was limited only to transfer players at the time, and an expansion to high school prospects in addition to a policy geared toward current student-athletes seemed like the logical next step even before the Baylor scandal began to dominate headlines.

What steps can be made?

Preventing prospects with the same history from signing is a no-brainer, but implementing a system of checks and balances outside of current Title IX regulations that is not only effective in preventing these instances from happening, but preventing situations like what happened at Baylor for the last several years from happening within the conference. 

Those guidelines will further guide head coaches and administrators to take every allegation as seriously as can be and punish those two take measures to protect the program rather than alleged victims.  

Take The Long Road Home

Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema hinted at an issue that could step to the forefront earlier this month on Sports Talk With Bo Mattingly, and expect that to start during the spring meeting session next week.

Grant Halverson/Getty Images

It's unrealistic that college football can follow the same blueprint as college basketball, which allows players to return to school after going through the combine as long as they don't hire an agent. 

Why?

The NFL combine takes place after national signing day, with the draft coming a full month after many spring practice sessions wrap up. That means college programs will already have signed a full class, started to sort out the depth chart for the upcoming season and should be at (or perhaps already over) the 85-player scholarship limit.

If players are then allowed to come back, there are far too many hoops for head coaches to jump through in order to get their teams ready for the season.

There is another solution, though.

What if schools paid for the players who submitted their names for NFL draft evaluation to participate in a dedicated underclassman combine that takes place the weekend after the College Football Playoff National Championship, which typically takes place on a Monday night in mid-January?

Push the decision date back to late January, let these players get real feedback from actual scouts who see them in person and decide on their futures a week or two prior to national signing day.

It can't account for players who are expecting to be drafted sitting at home waiting on that call that never comes, but it can at least give the players real, actionable information in a setting that includes the best underclassmen in the country. 

All Work And No Play

As BusinessInsider.com noted earlier this year, college football is essentially a full-time job in and of itself, with players devoting more than 40 hours per week to it on top of their commitments as students. 

Understanding that those players are being compensated in the form of a free education, housing, meals and athletic training, that's still a lot of time devoted to what technically is an "amateur" sport.

While there isn't a cut-and-dry way for the sport to tell its coaches to stop coaching and players to stop preparing—even in the offseason—expect athletic directors and coaches to offer several suggestions on how players can find a little more free time in their schedules to enjoy being college students.

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.