On Banning Satellite Camps
[Eric Upchurch]
The NCAA has banned satellite camps, because… [404 reason not found]. But it's done:
DI Council also approves rule requiring FBS camps and clinics be conducted on a school's campus or in regular facilities.
— NCAA (@NCAA) April 8, 2016
I have literally not seen a single peep in favor of this ruling anywhere public, from coaches to athletes to media members. A couple of reporters covering the SEC have related the private thoughts of coaches happy they can binge-watch Everybody Loves Raymond again, but ain't nobody coming out and waving the flag in favor of a rule change that literally only benefits people making 300k+.
This isn't going to have a major impact on Michigan, but it rankles because it is so transparently opposite the NCAA's claimed mission. If there's anyone who takes the NCAA's increasingly hilarious self-promotion seriously anymore, this should end that. It's a cartel of self-interested asshats operating under a veneer of virtue, because you can do astounding things as long as you have said veneer.
Meanwhile Jim Delany sits in a corner burbling about cable subscribers and counting his millions of dollars. What a country.
Additional thoughts will be introduced with an innovative bolded in-line title.
Q: SMSB? Over the past ten years, Sound Mind Sound Body has become a very large camp indeed, one featuring dozens of college coaches and four digits worth of athletes. Either the NCAA just bombed that camp hard or maybe there's a loophole. That loophole could be SMSB's charity nature. Coaches have been allowed there because they volunteer their time, IIRC, and the word choice in the ruling is specific:
SPORTS LAW HIVEMIND: Does the fact that this is "employed" and not "may not participate" mean what I think it does? pic.twitter.com/MpVJSaRRCX
— Bryan Mac (@Bry_Mac) April 8, 2016
If SMSB happens as planned then this is a non-ruling easily evaded. Michigan coaches can just go volunteer at the various SMSB-alikes that will proliferate like mushrooms after a rain.
If college coaches disappear then it's game over.
Ugh, work. This is simultaneously frustrating and very good for Michigan:
The SEC coaches I talked to were keeping their fingers crossed that satellite camps were outlawed. Just more work for everybody.
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) April 8, 2016
Harbaugh is still working harder than your coach. Your coaches who are making six- and seven-figure salaries on the backs of unpaid labor. They are going to sit in a circle and go "LOL remember that time we stopped Harbaugh from working" as Harbaugh invents new ways to torture his enemies.
Hooray lawsuits! This is now very relevant. Jack Swarbrick, ND AD and law-talking guy, on the legal defensibility of the ban:
“The NCAA does not have a very good track record of limiting, without losing an antitrust lawsuit, economic opportunities for coaches,” Swarbrick said Tuesday at the College Football Playoff meetings. “So they should be treading very lightly. The perception is these are school opportunities. A lot of these are coach opportunities purely. Imagine a rule that said, as was introduced years ago, coaches couldn't do national televised advertising because it created a recruiting advantage. … I wouldn't want to defend those lawsuits.”
A 1999 lawsuit resulting from an NCAA rule that limited assistant coach salaries to 16k a year(!) was victorious, leading to the free-for-all you see today. It'll be tough to win that lawsuit if it does come. So we've got that going for us when this hypothetical trial wraps up a decade from now.
[HT: Carl Paulus]
Disappointed to read satellite camp news-better solutions than a ban- will hurt PSA's & Group of 5 schools. pic.twitter.com/fhmEDnn2ve
— Pat Fitzgerald (@coachfitz51) April 8, 2016
This is not a surgical strike. Via Steve Wiltfong, non-Power 5 coaches are of course upset:
The new ruling basically says mid-major programs aren't allowed to participate in camps not held on campus. For instance, MAC schools flock to Big Ten camps as say an Ohio State camp generally only has a handful of kids good enough to play for the Buckeyes but several that could play for Ball State, Kent State, Toledo or Western Michigan.
Two MAC coaches told 247Sports they weren't sure how this rule affects them. One said "shocking."
Given that I wonder how the hell this legislation even passed. All Group of Five schools should be against it. The Big Ten should be against it. Big chunks of the Big 12, Pac 12, and ACC should be against it. Not only is it transparently against the interests of athletes, it's transparently against the interests of most of D-I.
Good lord, Harbaugh. Perhaps the greatest tragedy in all of this is that we didn't have to clone Sam Webb and almost kill both of 'em:
247Sports is told Michigan had 30 camps lined up, they were going to split groups and sometimes do two a day. Stops would have included North Florida, South Florida, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, Maryland and Connecticut.
Jim Harbaugh is always himself at maximum volume. Gonna be some fun times in the near future, satellite camps or no.
Can the schools make their camps charity based events?
This would allow them to bypass this idiocy. Not sure how this would work logistically or $ wise.
one post too many...
Also the coaches citing that it makes them work more when they have some free time. Dude you make millions and are complaining because someone wants to outwork you?! Maybe you should take a paycut or go coach high school because college football is a big boy business. It's nonstop and with salaries still going up, it's not going to stop.
Can we sue the MF in NCAA?
Whatever. My guess is Harbaugh figures out a way to do the camps anyway. But even if he doesn't, he'll figure out a way to maintain a competitive advantage.
He's 3 moves ahead of them. The NCAA/SEC is still fighting the last war.
Jason Kirk of SBN noted on Twitter that the NCAA banning satellite camps while Harbaugh has moved on to spring break recruiting trips is like they're a step behind chasing Carmen Sandiego.
How long before we announce our newest satellite campus: University of Michigan - Bradenton?
that this means that the University of Alambama can't hold a camp in Birmingham because that is off campus. Can you imagine the philosophy department bein told that they can't have a conference fraturing a professor from Harvard because it would give them an unfair advantage in recruiting graduate students.
Bowl games should only be allowed on campus...................................oh, wait
This is truly mind numbing to me and exemplifies the golden calf of the NCAA is the SEC. There is literally no reaon(s) not to have these camps, and the NCAA is cow-towing to a vocal minority.
Literally, every single other sport does this. Basketball teams go internationally; softball and baseball teams spend weeks in the Southeast for tournaments; etc. etc. etc.
F*cking dumb...The NCAA is sooooooooooo lucky the IOC and FIFA exist. Otherwise, they would truly be the most incomplenet sporting governing body in the world.
Right there with the IOC and FIFA don't forget international cycling federation ;-)
"D1 Council clarifies academic integrity rules"
I think that interpreting existing rules/legislation is the purview of the national office and does not require member approval. In other words, it does not require a vote. If there was not a vote, this was a way for the NCAA (or, more accurately, a faction within the NCAA) to effectively create a new rule without achieving a critical mass of support. That is why there may be no puzzle about how it passed through a wide swath of the NCAA - it probably didn't. This still seems ham-fisted and likely to cause problems down the road, like later today.
Instead of having 30 smaller camps, RENT OUT THE CITRUS BOWL in Orlando.
This is a facility regularly used for competition.
We just played a competitive game there!
And you could even argue that Meeeeechigan uses it regularly. (Just in case they tighten up the rule.)
Maybe the official rule will be documented more clearly, but the ruling being shared seems pretty loose. IMHO, "used regularly for practice or competition" leaves everything wide open.
Since it doesn't specify WHO has to use it regularly, it just says you can't go to a shoppping mall to host a camp. Any high school or college practice facility would be fine since it's used regularly.
I must be missing something!? But some peope are looking at wording like "employed" as being a possible loophole. So maybe the NCAA left a huge door open. Is anybody really that stupid!?
It wouldn't surprise me if UM finds a way to go ahead with their plans based on some interpretation that makes it possible.
Ultimately, I'm amazed it happened so fast and so carelessly.
You know that people and organizations can focus on more than one issue at a time, right? You may as well ask why people are so callous as to play football games while there's a rape culture going on.
Is it an administrative or small group decision or is there some requirement that the rule be reflective of the entire NCAA, for example by vote? If as Brian says, the camps benefit nearly everyone, how does this rule get through?
My guess is all Power 5 conferences voted against this right? Including the B1G? B/c Delaney probably doesn't like it either (or his constituents, which is all the other B1G schools) plus the other 4 equals 10 votes. Bullshit.
Three words: Fuck Jim Delany.
add my thoughts which have already been echoed.
FUCK the NCAA.
Also, I realize Coach Harbaugh normally waits a little bit before replying, but maybe this will be a lawsuit. If so, he would be advised to shut it for the time being. With that said, Harbaugh tweet in 3, 2, 1.
Delany is a bump on a log collecting a paycheck.
That is all.
but I called the NCAA comemnt line to express my feelings. If anyone's interested, the number is 317-917-6222. At least a little cathartic.
the Big 10 is 847-696-1010.
NCAA did deregulate electronic communications..... If coaches can spam students, we can spam NCAA, right?
That is categorically, factually, not true. We can debate all we want, legitimately, whether or not athletes deserve MORE compensation. But they are receiving the following compensation in ADDITION to the value of their scholarships, estimated at roughly $40,000-- $50,000 per year at schools like Michigan:
-Free food. Free health care. Free Travel. Cost of attendance bonus money.
--and the following perks unavailable to regular students: exclusive facilities, sleeping quarters, exercise areas, and at many schools regular students cannot enter them.
Oh, and being treated like kings (football/basketball players) on campus. Oh and girls.
The facts are, football players are the equivalent of the 1% on campus. They are gifted with priviledge the average student can't dream of. Now, if you want to argue they deserve more, go ahead and argue. But it's intellectually dishonest to pretend they are "unpaid labor."
Underpaid or "basically unpaid" work for you?
They arent average students. If you want a scholarship - be excellent at something valued (like math! Or english!)
If they're underpaid - why don't they exercise their choice to compete in the professional leagues available to them?
There is not a single sport offered at Michigan that one cannot go into a professional league straight out of high school... yet they keep choosing the "underpaid" college option over going pro.
Why do you think that is?
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then we can debate whether or not that is true. My POV is that 99% of all football athletes are fairly compensated, especially any player not 1st string--based upon the calculation above. The players I think are underpaid are the 1% who can actually generate ticket sales and sell jerseys. That guy is a miniscule porportion of the total yet its clear he generates revenue on his talent alone, and he should share in that reward. The other 99% IMO generate no revenue, because attendance at Michigan games would be precisely the same without them, with precisely the same TV ratings as well.
I could probably retire at a fairly young age if I didn't want to put my kids through college. They are well compensated athletes. Though they do get stipends as well so they are also paid. The only question is if they are paid enough. It takes a long time to save $$160-$200k for most people.
I would argue the cost of living stipend is "pay"
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/08/michigan_to_spend_103…
They get paid cost of attendance, that is monetary compenstion. And the value of their benefits is huge, well above the pay rate of the average person in America
Member conferences voted 10-5 agreeing with the change.
Will be banned next.
Georgia Tech and Florida State (I know, choked on saying this one) to the B1G. GT to the east and FSU to the west.
SEC, you don't want us visiting temporarily and then leaving? Okay, we're coming for good!
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Exactly right.
Is Warde going to be a Brandon or Hackett? First test!
On the mechanics of this. We need to slow our roll here and realize that this is not just an SEC thing. The Big 12 did not want Harbaugh in Texas and the PAC 12 DEFINITELY did not want him going going back back to Cali Cali. It was a vote. We didn't have the numbers. No reason to blame Jim Delany.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/15162704/ncaa-bans-satel…
The issue landed in the crosshairs of the Division I Football Oversight Committee.
The vote to prohibit satellite camps was passed by a 10-5 margin. Each Power 5 conference vote counts as two votes, while each Group of 5 conference vote counts for one vote for a maximum of 15 votes.
The Big Ten was the only Power 5 conference that was in favor of satellite camps, a source told ESPN.
The SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and Big 12 conferences all voted to end satellite camps, a source said. Among the Group of 5 conferences, the Sun Belt and Mountain West voted against the satellite camps, while the Mid-American, Conference USA and American were in favor of continuing the camps.
Mountain West must have been answering to the California schools on this as there is no reason for a Utah St., Colorado St., or Wyoming to not be all over Satellite camps.
but who in NJ or FL or TX will show up to a Utah St or Colorodo St. football clinic? My guess is that they be like who?
The benefit for teams from the MWC and Sun-Belt and those schools is that they can come work at these bigger events hosted by Michigan, or Pac-12 or Big-12 Schools. There are more kids at these camps that fit into a lower-profile D1 School than those who would go P5. So its a way for the CSU's and USU's of the world to see those kids in action, and for those kids to be exposed to coaches who fit their level.
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