Satellite Camps Are a Can of Worms College Football Really Shouldn't Reopen

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — It’s been quite a year for Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey, who took the reins from Mike Slive last July.

The issues that’s he’s had to deal with include Ole Miss being investigated by the NCAA, Tennessee getting cited in an embarrassing Title IX lawsuit, Louisiana’s budget crisis and Missouri President Tim Wolfe resigning after an onslaught of student protests including the black football players threatening not to play.

More recently, North Carolina, home of the SEC Network, passed an extremely controversial law that stripped away protections against discrimination of gay and transgender residents, and Georgia now has the Kirby Smart law, allowing schools to delay responding to open records requests.

Last week, though, he got rid of one headache for the conference: satellite camps, which were banned by the NCAA’s Division I Council on Friday. Four of the five power conferences, and six of the 10 FCS leagues, shut the door on football programs holding camps away from campus. 

“It's not as if we simply controlled the outcome,” Sankey said about the perception that the SEC and ACC led the charge during the Associated Press Sports Editors southeast regional meetings on Monday.

Regardless, it obviously wasn’t in his league’s best interest to let them continue. Even the coaches felt the same way.

"I'm really not even thinking that it has that much value,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “What would be a more interesting question for you to research—and I can't answer this—the teams that have done them, what value does it serve? How many players did they get? They had some players commit to them and some of those players decommitted and I know they even wanted to drop some of those players when they found out they could get better players.

“I love the system and the way we do it now. If everybody has a satellite camp, every player will have 62 camps to go to.”

Actually, it would be more.

Imagine for a moment that the NCAA went the opposite direction and took the lid off where camps can be located. Linebacker Dylan Moses is the top uncommitted player, according to the 247Sports’ composite rankings for 2017. How fast would it take IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where he plays, to set up some camps?

How about quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the top 2018 player? And the next guy? And each player after that…

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Programs could essentially go on tour. They’d totally revamp the spring, hire new people to run barnstorming events and be looking for more ways to influence recruits.  

It would often lead to less direct involvement between college coaches and their high school equivalents, causing the entire landscape of recruiting to change and not for the better. It wouldn’t just be taking a step toward the mess that exists in men’s basketball, but potentially become even worse.

“We shouldn't be creating ad hoc recruiting events that more and more involve intentional marketing efforts, sponsors involved,” Sankey said.

Think about that for a moment. You could have the Notre Dame Under Armour Tour and everything that would go with it. The possibilities would be almost endless and bring out some of the worst elements in recruiting.

It would start a whole new arms race. Like the NFL, college football is a copycat sport. If one program has success doing something, numerous others quickly follow.

Michigan held satellite camps. It didn’t take long for Ohio State to try to follow suit. The snowball effect could be overwhelming, all to the benefit of the richest programs.

“We already have combines with Nike, we already have The Opening, we already have these things that are great for the players,” Saban said. “How many teams play Division I football? Are they all going to have a satellite camp in every metropolitan area? That means they'll have 113 camps in Atlanta, 113 in Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Dallas, Houston.

Don Juan Moore/Getty Images

“I mean, it sounds like a pretty ridiculous circumstance for me for something that nobody can really determine, did it have any value anyway?"

Supporters of satellite camps claim that they can help create opportunities for recruits, but do they really? Thanks to technology, anyone can shoot and send video to any program in the nation, and there’s always that thing called scouting.

Besides, if Saban is already dominating in recruiting, consider what he would do with a tool like this and Alabama’s resources at his disposal.

In 2008, the NCAA passed what was called the Saban rule, banning head coaches from hitting the road and evaluating recruits in person during the spring. The public spin on it was to prevent “bump-ins” between coaches and recruits on their high school campus, but the real reason behind it was coaches were sick of being outworked during the offseason.

It caused then-USC coach Pete Carroll to tell the Sporting News “I don’t want to sound like a jerk. But other coaches...they're just lazy."

Maybe they are. But the NCAA can’t ban Saban from visiting campuses in the spring and then turn around and let Michigan hold camps in his backyard plus a week of spring practice in Florida. It had to go one way or the other. 

“I give them credit for being creative, but how can you be off campus on a high school campus during a quiet period?” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said.

Tip your hat to Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh for taking advantage of the issue and helping create a buzz for his program, but Sankey, who has numerous issues that are lot more serious to deal with, had the correct answer when asked for a word-association response to the coach's name.

“I move on.”

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.