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.
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I hope they have a couple of good attorneys sitting in the room when they discuss this banning. I've been pushing the idea of an antitrust suit since I heard about the SEC coaches complaining about having to work over the early summer. File the suit and ask for injunctive relief until the case is adjudicated.
I wonder if Delaney supported us. I wouldn't bet that he did.
That was a painful visual.
Nest of Collegiate Antitrust Activity
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Ix-nay on replying to the ouche-day. It's what he wants.
April 11th, 2016 at 10:35 AM ^
My guess: Harbaugh will wait 24 hours to make sure his reaction wasn't "knee-jerk."
What if they don't "conduct" the camps, but just participate as guests? And they aren't employed, but are just given an honorarium and expense reimbursement? Can't they still tour the country and show up at other high school and college camps to speak/coach? I'm not lawyer or anything, but I have to imagine that there is a distinction between "employed" and volunteer receiving an honorarium.
Coach could take a vacation to satelight camps. i guess the summer is the best time to have vacation according to the SEC coaches.
The NCAA has been sleep for years and they wake up for this???
Please go away and fuck yourself Mr. Emmett. We'll let you know when your services are required.
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April 10th, 2016 at 12:01 AM ^
Not that it will make one effing bit of difference, or that it will even take away the bitter taste of bile rising through your esophagus at the thought of the hypocracy of this ruling, but you can still send a reasoned, measured response to the NCAA at:
National Collegiate Athletic Association
700 W. Washington Street
P.O. Box 6222
Indianapolis, Indiana 46206-6222
Phone: 317-917-6222
Fax: 317-917-6888
Couldn't find any email contact addresses, since they probably know they would usually get a shitstorm of email from most of their actions if the option was available.
I know its not the same thing at all, but I legitimately cannot understand how the NCAA is taking action to get rid of this and seemingly not doing anything about the rape culture epidemic at Tennessee (where their coach threatened a player who helped a rape victim), the whole Ole Miss thing, college bball recruiting in general, Louisville's prosty ring, and academic scandals at places like UNC etc. Like they didn't think those things were even a little important to try to address?
I know right? Or the UNC "academics" scandal? They pushed this shit through ASAP but can't tell their asses from their fingers for the other shit that really should matter.
Looks like they learned from the NFL: Deflated balls or CTE, generaly rapeyness, domestic violence, etc. Hmmm. Let's see. Innovative camps for kids in the area that give a positive spin to a school that may recruit one or two of them to play versus what's mentioned above.
Don't forget Baylor's rape culture.
"rape culture".
Butch Jones called a guy on his team a "traitor" after the guy got punched by his teammates for helping a rape victim. Creating a culture where players are beaten up or called out by coaches for helping victims is pretty much one of the most rape tolerant things I have ever heard of by a college sports program.
But the term is stupid, unless you're talking about ISIS. Sort of like "microaggression".
/and for the record I think Jones should have been fired if he really said that. And the players should have been thrown off the team.
I have heard the term used broadly for Greek life/college in general, and in that situation I agree its dumb. But when the head of the program is doing stuff like that, don't really know how else to say it.
Why?
Can't speak for everyone, obviously, but for me it paints an overly broad and unfair brush.
Explain why
Summer camps is a distraction that pushes the real issues aside. Better to screw HS kids than dealing with serious stuff. MFing NCAA.
Time for Power 5 to get the requisite number of teams and say bye bye to these ass hats. They can do their own BBAll tourney and the NCAA dies from lack of funding.
I always look forward to your takes, and I hope many people read this. Even if not Michigan fans. Excellent, thank you Brian.
Scout is reporting that Harbaugh had a camp planned for Samoa. SAMOA! You think those kids wouldn't benefit? Fuck the NCAA.
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Here's what we know about the camps: The large majority of participants had zero chance of ever coming to Michigan on a football scholarship. The camps gave them the chance to experience a taste of Michigan coaching, however, and high-level football that might help them wherever they end up. Of those participants who were potential recruits, not all had the means to visit campus, or certainly to visit it as early or as often as they might want. The camps gave them the opportunity to meet the coaches and therefore helped mitigate that issue. Also, Harbaugh made it clear from the beginning that other programs were more than welcome to hold camps in Michigan -- even in Ann Arbor -- and that other coaches were invited to Michigan's camps. It's frankly difficult to see how these camps were anything but positive, for Michigan, for the participants, and for football.
But here's the thing: You know that already. You're throwing around invective because that's what lazy people do, and you don't like Harbaugh because he's most decidedly not of that ilk.
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/s
(And yes, the view is great from Michigan's big glass house on losing to cupcakes)
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