Jim Harbaugh Responds to Satellite Camp Ban in Vintage Fashion

After the NCAA announced its ban on satellite camps last Friday, it took Jim Harbaugh a little longer than many expected to respond publicly.

But once the Michigan head coach did let his thoughts on the matter be known, boy, was it worth the wait.

Speaking to Sports Illustrated's Michael Rosenberg for a story that ran on CampusRush.com Tuesday, Harbaugh broke his silence—in a fashion only Harbaugh can.

Perhaps the only reason the second-year Wolverines head coach saved his screed against the NCAA from his Twitter account is because he had so much to say, with thoughts that wouldn't have befit 140-characters-or-less segments.

"Knee-jerk," Harbaugh said of the ruling, echoing Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer's comments on the ban earlier this week. "Like somebody was shaving in the morning, cut themselves when they were shaving and said, 'Let's just ban satellite camps.'"

Harbaugh didn't stop there, firing personal shots at Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze and the NCAA as a whole. The former Michigan quarterback even went as far as to suggest the idea of amateurism was a sham, pointing out the inconsistencies of promoting "student-athletes" during the NCAA Tournament but abandoning a practice that even Meyer—Harbaugh's chief rival in the Big Ten—estimated led to "hundreds" of scholarships being handed out at the Buckeyes camp alone.

"I suggest we drop the term 'student-athlete' for consistency," Harbaugh told Rosenberg.

Sharp, provocative and to the point. In other words, it was vintage Harbaugh.

It also may have been a glimpse into where the Wolverines plan on going from here, now that their second summer Swarm Tour of satellite camps appears to have been cancelled.

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

After all, a byproduct of Harbaugh's first Swarm Tour, a 10-day, seven-state string of satellite camps that included stops in Alabama, Florida, Texas and California, was the publicity it helped generate for a Michigan program that was in need of just that at the time.

Whether it was the mere announcement of the innovative tour itself or the images from it that eventually emerged, the Wolverines managed to consistently stay in the headlines during what's typically a dead period for publicity on the college football calendar.

"He's an extremely creative person," Rivals.com National Director of Recruiting Mike Farrell told Bleacher Report. "He knows how to rattle some cages and stay in the media focus, which is always helpful for recruiting and for your program."

Only this time, Harbaugh appears to have public support on his side, at least when it comes to his primary targets in this whole process: high school coaches and their prospects.

Since Friday's ban was revealed, multiple current and future college players have spoken out against the elimination of satellite camps, which not only ends practices like Harbaugh's Swarm Tour but also bans coaches from smaller schools from attending larger schools' camps, as well as the popular Sound Mind Sound Body camp out of Detroit, which was slated to go national this year.

According to Harbaugh, "thousands" of people will be affected by the ruling, the clearest of which are the players who used such camps to audition for scholarship offers.

"For me, personally, it's all about opportunity," Gibsonton (Florida) East Bay head coach Frank LaRosa told Bleacher Report before the ban. "What you see is opportunity for your kids and that's ultimately what's so important for these guys is having that.

"From a competitive standpoint, if you had to coach against Coach Harbaugh, I could see how that would ruffle your feathers. If he's not breaking any rules, then he's doing what he's gotta do for his program."

Only now, such practices are no longer legal, seemingly thanks in large part to the SEC, which has been fighting satellite camps since Penn State's James Franklin held two—one in Georgia and one in Florida—in 2014. One of the camps' more outspoken critics, Freeze, even went as far as to state that one reason he was against the practice was that he wanted to preserve his vacation time—which the SEC has insisted it would have taken part of had Harbaugh been allowed to continue to hold camps.

"I'm selfish with my time," the Ole Miss head coach said, per Daniel Paulling of the Clarion-Ledger. "I'm away from my family enough, and I just did not want to go. I was ready to. We would've jumped in with the rest of them and gone to work. But I'm glad we can have a camp and I can sleep at home."

Unsurprisingly, that line of thinking didn't sit well with a head coach who's previously described himself to the media as a "jackhammer" who doesn't partake in vacations or observing major holidays.

"You've got a guy sitting in a big house, making $5 million a year, saying he does not want to sacrifice his time," Harbaugh told Rosenberg. "What most of these coaches are saying is they don't want to work harder." 

That may be all the ammunition needed by Harbaugh, the symbol of a practice that's clearly in demand with high school coaches and players. With those camps now banned, Harbaugh can position himself as the voice of the prospects against the rival conferences and coaches who served as the camps' loudest critics.

With his comments to Sports Illustrated, that appears to be the route Harbaugh plans on taking, even if his hard-hitting words don't result in an actual repeal of the ban.

And if his rerouted course of action results in more attention for his program, so be it. But after Tuesday, one thing is clear: Harbaugh won't be quieting down any time soon.

 

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.