SEC Drops its Ban on Satellite Camps - Let the Games Begin!

Submitted by EastCoast Esq. on

So the SEC has seen the writing on the wall and has voted to get rid of its 50-mile rule. In other words, it's open season on nation-wide recruiting:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/05/sec_eliminates_its_ban_of_sate.html

I ventured over to Roll Bama Roll to see what they are saying about the satellite camp debate, and here's what I found:

http://www.rollbamaroll.com/2015/5/28/8677067/coming-soon-university-of-alabama-chesapeake-bay

They basically think that the B1G is going to come to regret the decision to push the issue because the SEC recruiting juggernaut will pilfer the Midwest.

In response I say....are you nuts? The best recruits in the country right now are coming from the West Coast and the Southeast. If you think we are afraid to trade facetime with Rust Belt recruits for Bible Belt recruits, you are greatly mistaken.

If they do take top recruits from the Midwest, great for them. However, to say that we have locked down the Midwest (which the author says) misses a very crucial fact...the most fertile recruiting grounds are in THEIR backyard.

 

As Michael Buffer used to say: Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

EDIT: A poster below noted that the policy change IS NOT EFFECTIVE UNTIL 2016, and will only occur IF the NCAA does not ban the practice before then. Given that the SEC doesn't have the votes to ban the practice, though, this just means that the SEC will wait until 2016 to hold camps.

Wolverine Devotee

May 28th, 2015 at 12:41 PM ^

Harbaugh and Miles both coaching at the same camp here.

This is like the wet dream of the 2011 coaching search.

notetoself

May 28th, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^

satellite camps are a horrible practice which is unfair to both coaches and kids.

oh wait - we can do it now? satellite camps are a huge recruiting advantage which we'll use to destroy all competition.

trueblueintexas

May 28th, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^

Your first sentence will be the lead sentence in the NCAA Press Release which is about to come out in 18 minutes banning the use of satellite camps across the whole NCAA.

Your second sentence will be the first line out of Nick Saban's mouth explaining why the NCAA should not have banned these camps the SEC just allowed. 

M-Dog

May 28th, 2015 at 1:32 PM ^

They will talk about it like it's a way to even the field with the Big Ten, but what they really will do is use it to get in the face of their SEC rivals.  
 
That's why they had the rule in the first place . . . to keep mini-wars from breaking out in the SEC
 
Well forget that shit.  Look for Florida camps in Tuscaloosa and Alabama camps in Baton Rouge and Georgia camps in Knoxville.  
 
It will be all kinds of squawking and chaos.

Wolverine In Exile

May 28th, 2015 at 4:17 PM ^

and I'm not even sure it's going to be SEC-on-SEC violence (even though that will certainly, most definately occur). I think it's more SEC-on-PAC12 and SEC-on-ACC violence to be scheduled. The point about where the talent is can not be lost on SEC coaches... hosting a camp in Grand Rapids ain't going to get them as much as mid-level SEC teams like Tennessee, South Carolina, and Kentucky hosting camps in Los Angeles, San Diego, and the like. The one exception would be SEC teams hosting camps in Tex A&M's backyard, but then is it really hurting Tex A&M or UTexas?

To me the real question is: to paraphrase, is the SEC in an uneviable position, in that they have to win all the battles with recruits in their geographic area or are they the side in the recruiting wars that only has to get lucky once outside of their area?

coldnjl

May 28th, 2015 at 2:31 PM ^

What I love is this makes OSU's furtile ground of Cleveland a major target for SEC schools...Ohio needs more competition, and I am more than willing to accept a trade of a slightly harder hit OSU and the loss of a few Detroit recruits for enhanced access to California and the Southeast

Danwillhor

May 28th, 2015 at 2:39 PM ^

the SEC can only oversign so much. For every Midwest kid they take they lose one Southeastern kid. If the NCAA doesn't crush the camps this could hurt the SEC more than help. Midwest schools have to go out of region by necessity. Michigan doesn't have a city with a million people in it anymore & it's getting worse. I'm not sure of the Ohio population but I'm pretty sure their power areas are losing people, too. Please, by all means let us swap just 5 players a year. The odds are overwhelming that the five they lose will be better than the 5 they gain. Or.....it could turn them into an unstoppable force lol. One or the other.

lbpeley

May 28th, 2015 at 12:49 PM ^

Now can the B1G lift the ban on oversigning or can the NCAA outlaw oversigning? No? Oh, so the SEC just got back the advantage.

seabass1974

May 28th, 2015 at 4:14 PM ^

I agree. There's only so much talent outside of the West Coast and SE that can go around. As for those two locations it almost seems like an endless supply. If the NCAA doesn't ban the practice, this hurts the SEC way more than helps. Also, as another pointed out, it most likely just sends the SEC schools to each other's backyards for a mini-southern-civil war. Shall Michigan will march to the south again!

pappawolv

May 28th, 2015 at 12:57 PM ^

Is not that Bama will set up in Sandusky, OH.  They can pretty much get attention anywhere nationally if they so choose.

The biggest part here is that the SEC will eat their own young.  Those rules were put in place to keep Bama from doing camps in Georgia;  Florida not doing camps near Auburn, etc.

Majority of their work will be in the back yard of their conference/division competition unless of course most of the nation's population suddenly moves up to the rust belt.

Yooper

May 28th, 2015 at 1:14 PM ^

This change will only make intra-SEC recruiting more competitive, and more sleazy.  Every SEC team is now trying to figure out which top high school programs to team up with for a satellite camp.  Lots of SEC dollars will now flow to the HS level.

It will be interesting to see how all this shakes out but on balance I think it works for us.

Brady Elliott

May 28th, 2015 at 1:49 PM ^

Can you imagine how many "handshakes" are going to happen between HS coaching staffs and college teams/boosters to prevent certain coaching staffs from camping at certain talent rich high schools? These HS coaches could make some money leveraging the SEC teams for the best deal for their HS.

Brady Elliott

May 28th, 2015 at 1:20 PM ^

If I'm urban, I'm a little nervous about the sec schools invading Ohio. Of course, they can invade MI but with the disparity in talent between MI and OH, the potential loss for OSU seems to be greater. In theory, the growth of these camps would lead to parity of talent but perhaps the schools without the resources of the schools such as Bama, UM, Auburn, OSU, notre dame, etc will mean only the schools with the resources available to have these camps will get the top recruits. It will be interesting to see both the short term and long term effects of this growth in satellite camps.

andrewgr

May 28th, 2015 at 7:48 PM ^

The hyperbole here is out of control.  They're just sattelite camps.  I get that UM recruiting is dismal at the moment, but the hype about these camps is ridiculous.

If OSU loses 1 commitment a year because of sattelite camps taking place in Ohio, I'll be shocked.  It's just not that big of a deal..

It might allow some lesser-known kids a chance to get seen by a program that runs a different style of offense or defense or has a particular need, which is great for the kid; but if he was someone that wanted to go to OSU, or could be pursuaded to go to OSU, a camp isn't going to be a deciding factor.

Lest we forget, kids are allowed to take actual official visits, where the school pays their expenses.  If Alabama is interested in Ohio's Mr. Football, they can pay for him to go there and get the full court press; they don't need to hold some camp in Ohio that he can drive to.

I think it would be a troubling sign for Michigan if they wound up getting several kids as a result of these camps, because those kids would obviously not be good enough to have an elite program chasing them, coaches calling every day, official visit with all the bells and whistles, multiple staff members visiting the high school to talk to their coach, etc. etc. 

For the elite kids, a camp like this has no bearing.  Maybe it gets you on the radar of some 3* kids, who subsequently go ont to take a vist, and wind up liking it there.  Good luck building a program with that.

 

Blue Noise

May 28th, 2015 at 12:57 PM ^

That Roll Bama Roll post is hilariously short-sighted, seeing only the benefits of SEC satellite camps in the Midwest while ignoring that any time, money, attention SEC coaches spend recruiting up north will naturally include a commensurate dip in the attention they can pay to their own region, a vacuum B1G coaches (well, the good ones) can exploit because they are now permitted to appear at satellite camps in the south unencumbered.
I would also say that deciding to recruit more northern players would mean less scholarship spots for southern players, but obviously that is not a consequence SEC coaches need to consider...




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

May 28th, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^

Agreed.  Even SEC coaches have a limit to how many they can sign.  It's not like they're all going to glom 10 Midwestern recruits onto their already bloated classes.  If they replace a southern recruit with a Midwestern recruit, I guess we'll just take that southern recruit and put some of that ESS EEE SEE SPPEEEEEED on our teams and they can have the plodding scrawny wastrels they seem to think Midwesterners all are.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

May 28th, 2015 at 2:55 PM ^

Practical limits.  Even if Hugh Freeze would sign 100 players a year if he could, the thing is he can't.  At some point you run out of useless players to kick off the team put on medical scholarship, and they can play all the games they want with the yearly limit but it's way, way harder to get away with breaking the 85 limit.  

And players know who else is in their class.  The more you have, the harder it'll be to convince them there's room for one more.  Yes, even SEC coaches have limits, even if they act like they don't.

BIGBLUEWORLD

May 28th, 2015 at 1:02 PM ^

These camps don't hurt the kids playing football.  It gives them more options.

Getting jerked around by those coaches who oversign and greyshirt, that causes trouble for kids and hurts their education.  Now that Delaney has spoken out about this issue, the cat is out of the bag.  Camps or no camps, college football should examine and take action on a practice that subverts the educational opportunity a scholarship is intended to provide an athlete.

How about dealing in good faith with these kids?

BIGBLUEWORLD

May 28th, 2015 at 1:09 PM ^

The season hasn't started yet, but we can chalk up a win for Coach Harbaugh on the football camp issue.  

Now I'm looking forward to winning on the field.