Think Of Hugh Freeze's Children
Sound Mind Sound Body provided exposure for thousands of area players. [Rapai]
The NCAA ban on satellite camps—and coaching at camps away from campus, period—is an ill-considered, haphazard measure that serves the selfish interests of a select few millionaires while hurting the exact people the NCAA is supposed to serve: the student-athletes. That's been the near-universal reaction from current players, recruits, parents, and media members alike in the wake of the ruling.
Khalid Hill, Jourdan Lewis, and Moe Ways, all of whom participated in the Sound Mind Sound Body camp, spoke out against the ban on Twitter over the weekend. Hill had some particularly strong words for the NCAA:
All I got to say.... pic.twitter.com/HOVhsIJhw4
— Khalid Hill (@Thatboylid80) April 10, 2016
Of greater concern to, say, the SEC coaches who pushed for the legislation, current prospects and their parents are also outraged. Five-star Cass Tech senior Donovan Peoples-Jones wrote a note about how much SMSB helped him and other local prospects, many of whom didn't have the opportunity to attend on-campus camps, get noticed by college coaches:
Retweet to spread this: #ChangeNCAA pic.twitter.com/HDimVUW9HE
— Donovan P. Jones (@dpeoplesjones) April 10, 2016
Recruits and coaches at Bob Jones and Prattville high schools in Alabama, two of the planned stops on Michigan's summer camp tour, also lamented the lost opportunity:
Bob Jones coach Kevin Rose anticipated the camp at his school would draw about 500 players.
"I was really disappointed because, in my opinion, it's a lost opportunity for high school kids and high school coaches, especially that kid that's maybe not quite tall enough to make the measurables," Rose said. "We have a couple of guys that I think in a satellite camp setting could make a case for themselves, and obviously you're not going to drive to Ann Arbor or Michigan from Madison, Alabama. If they come to you, that's a great opportunity for kids and coaches. ... From our perspective, we feel like that was something very positive for high school football in north Alabama."
While the efficacy of change.org petitions is up for debate, it's very notable that one of the most-signed petitions calling for a reversal of the ban was started by Rozlyn Peoples, Donovan Peoples-Jones' mother. It's already surpassed 5000 signatures.
On Friday April 7th The SEC, ACC, PAC12, BIG12, Sunbelt and MWC conferences voted not to allow FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) coaches to work camps at sites away from their campuses. This new rule will restrict and reduce educational opportunities for high school students and their parents by lowering the opportunities for youth to showcase their athletic talents and earn a college scholarship. If college coaches are only allowed to work camps on their campus there will be far less scholarship offers to high school students in the summer of 2016. This will in turn have a disproportionate impact on parents in the class of 2017 because:
-1. The effective immediate date of the NCAA ruling means they will not be able to see multiple college coaches the summer prior to their last year of high school
-2. The conflicting institutional camp schedule makes it impossible for students to attend multiple camps
3. The majority of students and parents that this affects come from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.
Fox Sports' Stewart Mandel penned an open letter to the NCAA asking for them to reverse course; they could do so before the end of the month:
On April 28, you will decide whether to approve a proposal passed late last week by the Division-I Council that bans FBS football coaches from conducting or working at camps and clinics outside of their program's regular facilities -- a.k.a. satellite camps. I realize that in most instances your role is primarily to rubber-stamp legislation, but in this instance, I'd urge you to rescind this ill-conceived measure.
It badly fails the one constituency your organization purports to protect -- the athletes themselves.
I wouldn't normally hold my breath for the NCAA to do something right, but the outcry in this instance has been remarkable. In one corner, you have the athletes (current, future, and former), their parents, high school coaches, media members, and a decent chunk of the NCAA's member institutions. In the other corner, you have this:
Freeze: "I’m selfish with my time,” he said. “I’m away from my family enough, and I just did not want to go." https://t.co/QPjNOK5QDf
— angelique (@chengelis) April 10, 2016
Hugh Freeze is paid $4.9 million per year to coach football in an area with enough talent that he has little need for satellite camps. He doesn't want to work harder for those $4.9 million, which is fine; that's his prerogative. What's not fine is he doesn't want anyone else to be allowed to provide these opportunities, which would probably cause him to have to work harder to avoid falling behind, and won't someone think of Hugh Freeze's children? Just, uh, while you do so, don't think about all those other children—the thousands trying to earn scholarships to attend college because their parents don't make $4.9 million per year.
At least he admits he's selfish, I guess.
As you said, at least Freeze will admit his laziness, as opposed to Saban saying "I mean, it sounds like a pretty ridiculous circumstance for me for something that nobody can really determine, did it have any value anyway?" That determination isn't yours to make for the whole country, Nicky. Clearly Harbaugh and many, many others have a differing opinion on the value it adds than you.
It probably doesn't have value for Alabama, who already has almost any recruit happy to take Saban and his staff's calls. It probably would actually have value for some SEC and ACC teams, and it has a shitload of value for the Sun Belt teams and I haven't the faintest idea why they would have voted to make their own recruiting exponentially more difficult. Unless there was an under the table payment to the conference or something for their vote.
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"it has a shitload of value for the Sun Belt teams and I haven't the faintest idea why they would have voted to make their own recruiting exponentially more difficult."
I can't figure this out either. It appears that several smaller conferences voted against their own self interests, just to appease the SEC. Why? Is it because the SEC schedules these teams as early season punching bags and the SEC threatened to pull away that payday if they voted against the ban?
Don't forget, they are also mid season punching bags, when the SEC teams take a break from the conference schedule for a glorified exhibition game.
That's not the point. They should play them before conference play, instead of effectively getting two bye weeks during connference play.
The SEC could find a new punching bag.
April 12th, 2016 at 10:19 AM ^
if you live in a glass house. If you look at future Big Ten schedules, the Big Ten is going the way of the SEC. There are going to be conference games the first and second weeks of the season with non-conference games falling later in the season (not as late in the season as the SEC though).
The SEC may threaten that but then who would they fill their non conference schedule with? Because we all know they are too chicken shit to play up north.
for Sunbelt schools in recruiting. Sure, they gain something from them, but they lose players too. Anything that distributes recruits from talent rich areas more evenly around the country works against the schools in those areas. All you have to do is look at Josh Metellus. He decommitted from a Sunbelt school after Michigan came down there.
Coaches from those Sun Belt schools (and FCS schools) work some of these satellite camps and get a live look at a bunch of prospects for the cost of "show up and coach" and might even get paid for it in some cases. They don't have to do any of the work to set it up, and "camp put on by coaches from Ohio State/Michigan/Nebraska/Whatever" is going to attract people a lot more than a Sun Belt camp would. Plenty of the articles out there note that a team like Georgia Southern was able to see a lot more guys by having coaches working various camps including satellite camps.
Once in a while they'll lose a guy to Power 5, but for teams that simply don't have the recruiting budget that some of the P5 teams have, those extra opportunities to evaluate and work with kids live was a much bigger positive for them than losing out on a guy on occasion.
April 11th, 2016 at 10:40 PM ^
the sunbelt schools don't need the negative feedback that they are getting right now.
Donovan Peoples Jones tweeting against this is a bad start to the recruiting process for the SEC if they want to steal him from a midwest school.
Huge piece of shit.
but at least he's an honest peice of shit. More than you can say about Saban.
Didn't Hugh Freeze get all sanctimonious about how he wasn't paying players? Which actually plays into this. Hugh Freeze is too lazy to go recruit, he has others go pay recruits to come to him.
/notajoke
the SEC can only make so many under the table money transfers.
If you want a summer vacation maybe you should be a PE teacher.
I would like to know why the possibility of graft is not more roundly considered/discussed. The sheer fact that ANY conference outside of the ACC/SEC would support this decision screams of payola to me. Think about it - outside of the few California schools the rest of the PAC 12 should be supporitng these camps and they vote no. The Big 12 votes no as does the MWC and the Sunbelt for reasons currently unknown Why would these conferences vote against something that could benefit them UNLESS money was changing hands?
Back when FIFA selected Russia and Qatar for the World Cup everybody talked about how "stupid" they were too. But they weren't stupid at all - they were thiefs and they were voting as they were paid to vote. My guess is we'll find out someday that this vote (like many of the NCAA's investigations or more importantly non-investigations) was bought and paid for.
Bag men dont' just pay off players IMO.
Well Hugh, no one is making you have these camps. You can just hang out with your family. No one is making you have a camp.
I want the camps to be held!
die, Hugh!
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Not just football. The rule only applies to FBS (I-A) football. FCS (I-AA), Div II and Div III are free to participate in all the camps they would like.
The schools in the South (mostly Georgia, Alabama and Florida), Texas, and California don't want the rest of the country coming to their states and raiding their players. If the camps were to continue, those coaches who are in talent rich areas will have to work harder than what they are accustomed to inorder to keep the players that they feel they have a "right" to. Because these schools also have a shit ton of money/power they were able to convince the other schools in their conferences (and their subordinate conferences) to vote for the ban.
This ban in no way is helping Oregon State or Kansas.
Hats off to Freeze for saying what others are to chickenshit to admit. Even if he's wrong and an arrogant gasbag for thinking his time is more precious than someone else's.
Fuck all of them, but fuck him just .00000001% less.
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i'm sure this is just my own bias talking here, but are there any SEC coaches that you think, "man, that guy just busts his ASS, every single minute." saban, i guess, but it seems like at least some of these guys just gather a shitload of local talent, sit back, and gather 8-10 wins a year. spurrier and richt were famous for it. i don't think bert is outworking anyone. neither is les miles. the mississippi guys are just "recruiting" their way to 8 wins. when was the last time that auburn outperformed its talent level? the weird-toothed guy in gainesville? same thing. kirby smart might be different, but that remains to be seen.
i don't know, man. like i said, i'm sure it's my own bias and frustration talking here, just seems like the elite B1G coaches - harbaugh and dantonio for sure, and urban meyer until he burns out again - are outworking their SEC counterparts.
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hatred continues to grow more each day
If you don't want Power 5 hours, then go work FCS and take it easy. If you want the Power 5 salary, then you gotta put in that time. He's basically trying to cash in, be lazy, and prohibit others from outworking him.
I wish I could do that at my job
to all of the high school coaches in the south.
Honest is a far better adjective than lazy. I respect the man for actually saying something of substance; negative reaction to his comments are the reason why everyone bites their tongue these days. Boring is no fun.
Is he being honest? The linked article says this:
He had intended to participate in satellite camps in Dallas and Houston with Oklahoma State and in Atlanta and possibly on the Mississippi Gulf Coast with Missouri, but the NCAA’s Division I Council voted Friday to ban such camps for FBS coaches effective immediately.
The honesty is he would have to work harder during a relatively quiet period of the year (and as you suggest was indeed set up to do so) and simply didn't want to do that. He is no Harbaugh and is admitting it. Pretty bold for someone making multi-millions.
The first part of his quote gets repeated the most. It's not the outrageous thing he said. From the Clarion Ledger:
“I understand there’s one side of the fence that says, ‘Well, it could cost kids opportunities,’” Freeze said. “There’s the other side of the fence that it could’ve been a total circus that would put so much pressure on these kids because you might have 50 camps in Atlanta or Dallas.”
"I wouldn't normally hold my breath for the NCAA to do something right...
I wouldn't either...especially when the current President of the NCAA is a former chancellor of LSU and in the back pocket of the SEC..
But that's none of my business...
"The majority of students and parents that this affects come from financially disadvantaged backgrounds."
"F those poor kids" - The NCAA and SEC.
Great publicity, you morans. Get a brain.
for 'morans.'
Board of Directors votes to allow satellite camps at their April 28th vote.
Harbaugh's quiet politics response--remaining silent and allowing athletes and other coaches to mount the assault--is brilliant. I imagine it hasn't been easy to bite his tongue the past couple days, but it may yet pay off:
Because now it's not Jim Harbaugh vs. NCAA, it's everybody vs. NCAA. And that may yet move the needle.
i used to work for a fairly large (300+ employees) contractor that also did some development. once, when things were really exploding along, i heard that we hadn't been paid the last few thousand bucks on several projects; the tenant(s) were very happy with the results, but were trying to screw us.
"man, mike," i asked our owner, "doesn't that just piss you off? what are we going to do about it?"
"yeah, it pisses me off a little," he said, "especially since they love the results we've given them. but i'd rather spend my time getting ten new projects than trying to chase down the last few bucks on those three."
the guy was (and is) a jackhammer. kinda like our guy - he's not going to spend his time getting pissed off or fighting back, he's just going to find a new edge, and continue outworking and outmaneuvering everyone in sight.
In those cases you can just send the debt right to a collections-for-hire outfit. It's out of your hands but you can still send a message that what they did was a no-no. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than debt collectors.
Im a contractor and mechanics liens arent hard to set up.
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