Urban Meyer Is Now Jim Harbaugh's Greatest Ally in Fight for Satellite Camps

COLUMBUS, Ohio — If Jim Harbaugh's theatrics since arriving in Ann Arbor have turned the college football world into something that resembles professional wrestling, then the past 15 months must have felt like a gauntlet match for the Michigan head coach.

There Harbaugh has stood in the center of the squared circle, taking on each consecutive challenger—most of which have hailed from the SEC—without any help in his corner.

Georgia's Kirby Smart? Bring him on.

Tennessee's Butch Jones? Who's next?

Ohio State AD Gene Smith? Sure, why not?

On Friday, however, the second-year Wolverines headman appeared to finally have been defeated when the NCAA ruled that satellite camps—which served as the root of Harbaugh's spats with the SEC—are no longer legal. The SEC strongly opposed the practice over the past year, with the the Division I Football Oversight Committee's decision to outlaw satellite camps, which saw coaches act as guest instructors at other schools, serving as a de facto victory for the conference.

In essence, coaches like Harbaugh will no longer be able to spend their summers setting up shop in the South in an effort to improve their recruiting inroads.

With that, there will be no sequel to last year's summer Swarm Tour, where Harbaugh headed to SEC country and served as a guest counselor in states such as Florida, Alabama and Texas.

"I mean, what's it based on? A survey? There wasn't a lot of discussion or study. What are the facts? What are the perils and merits of making that decision? It just seemed lacking in that regard," Harbaugh told Sports Illustrated's Michael Rosenberg in a story that ran on CampusRush.com on Tuesday.

But just like pro wrestling, college football is often full of twists and turns.

And if WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross was on the call, Monday's emergence of an unlikely ally on Harbaugh's side may have sounded something like this:

"Bah gawd, that's Urban Meyer's music!"

OK, so maybe that's a bit dramatic. It's also worth noting that while Meyer was speaking on the matter on Monday, Harbaugh's name wasn't mentioned once.

But when asked about his thoughts on the recent satellite camp ban, Meyer didn't shy away from speaking his mind. And intentional or not, that led to one of the most impassioned defenses of satellite camps seen from anyone in the Big Ten in the past year.

"The biggest thing that I didn't realize that was part of it is that now the MAC schools can't come here [for Ohio State's summer camps]," Meyer said. "Probably hundreds of scholarships have come out of here to those young players and I know my son is getting recruited a little bit, and it's like, what camps do you send them to? Not many kids can play at Ohio State, so don't send them—or send them, but now Bowling Green didn't get a chance to watch him play. When I was [the head coach] at Bowling Green, I'd come to Ohio State's camp because you get to see all these great players. I didn't realize that was part of the conversation."

Paul Vernon/Associated Press

On the surface, that might not sound like much of a defense of Harbaugh, who's been more blunt about using satellite camps as a recruiting tool—one that happened to help him land the nation's fifth-ranked class in 2016. Although Meyer insisted he wasn't trying to side with whether the NCAA's decision was "right or wrong," he sure sounded like a coach in favor of lifting the ban.

"Sometimes I think there's knee-jerk reaction because people complain and I get it," Meyer said. "That's a slippery slope. I'm not worried about the high, high-level players because they're going to find a way to get where they need to get. I'm talking about the big chunk of players out there that deserve to play major college football. I hope they revisit it."

If Meyer's actually being altruistic, there's certainly a middle ground that can be reached. Instead of restricting schools to their own campuses for offseason camps, perhaps programs could be allotted a certain number of miles to travel each year, as opposed to the unlimited amount of travel Harbaugh took advantage of last offseason.

At the same time, there's no reason to pretend the Buckeyes don't have something to gain from the ban on satellite camps being lifted as well.

After all, Ohio State held a satellite camp of its own in Florida a year ago and had planned on participating in another one in Georgia this offseason before Friday's ruling.

At last year's camp on the campus of Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, the Ohio State staff was able to secure face time with some of the Sunshine State's top prospects, including 2017 5-star wideout Trevon Grimes.

At Central Gwinnett High School in Lawrenceville, Georgia, where the Buckeyes planned on holding this year's camp, the OSU staff likely would've been afforded a similar opportunity. Four-star offensive tackle Tony Gray (2017) and 3-star defensive tackle Emmanuel McNeil each call Gwinnett home, as does 2018 quarterback Jarren Williams.

Thus, it's not a stretch to say the Buckeyes would benefit from the satellite camp ban being lifted, even if Meyer had initially stated last year he wasn't a fan of the practice. Holding its own Swarm Tour may have never been in the cards for Ohio State, but if the Buckeyes can help secure a commitment or make some inroads at even just one satellite camp each offseason, that alone would be worth Meyer fighting for.

And that's what he might do.

A three-time national champion and one of college football's most prominent coaches, Meyer knows his voice matters when it comes to NCAA-related issues. In 2014, he led the charge for having the College Football Playoff pay for the travel of families to the event—a practice the NCAA not only passed, but eventually expanded.

Whether Meyer—who also called the newly passed deregulation of recruit text messaging "the most ignorant thing I've ever heard in my life" on Monday—will push as hard for reform this time around remains to be seen. But he certainly sounded like a coach interested in making sure his voice is heard.

"Once we get through spring football, then we might decide," Meyer said. "I hope they reconsider. I hope after an article one of you guys does, maybe they'll call and ask our opinion."

Andrew Weber/Getty Images

As you might imagine, Harbaugh has even stronger thoughts on the matter. One day after Meyer offered his defense of satellite camps, the Michigan head coach came out swinging against the NCAA.

"Knee-jerk," Harbaugh told Rosenberg of the ruling. "Like somebody was shaving in the morning, cut themselves when they were shaving and said, 'Let's just ban satellite camps.'"

"Knee jerk," huh? Sounds familiar. Intentional or not, Harbaugh now finds himself with an unlikely ally in Meyer, even if the two Big Ten rivals have different reasons for seeking reform to the NCAA's latest restriction.

Meyer and Harbaugh teaming up? Perhaps "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" in this case.

It's certainly common in the world of professional wrestling, which college football has found itself having plenty in common with since Harbaugh arrived in Ann Arbor 15 months ago.

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.