The NCAA, helping the rich get richer since 1906

The reviews are in on yesterday’s decision to ban satellite camps.  It’s a boffo box office smash!

Bruce Feldman:  “In the end this will be seen by many as the NCAA putting Harbaugh and other cold weather coaches in their places but in reality it’s just closing the window on more recruits getting exposure to more coaches — and taking away more opportunity. And that’s nothing to celebrate.”

South Florida coach Willie Taggart:  “If you really think about it, [camps are] the right thing to do. Kids are going to camps all over the country, spending all this money to try and get the most amount of exposure, when it’s the schools that have all the money. The schools should be moving around so the players can get a larger variety of teams.”

Mike Leach: “It appears that the selfish interests of a few schools and conferences prevailed over the best interests of future potential student-athletes,” WSU coach Mike Leach said in a text message to the Seattle Times. “The mission of universities and athletic programs should be to provide future student-athletes with exposure to opportunities, not to limit them. It appears to me that some universities and conferences are willing to sacrifice the interests of potential student-athletes for no better reasons than to selfishly monopolize their recruiting bases.”

Kevin Scarbinsky:  “But seriously, and sadly, the biggest losers here are the members of what should be the most important constituency in college football. They’re the young men playing the game that enriches so many others, and as often happens when men in suits make this kind of decision, it reinforces the notion that college football isn’t all that interested in putting its players first.”

Houston Strake Jesuit coach James Clancy: “Helping kids is supposed to be why we do what we do, and this doesn’t help them in any way,” Clancy, who had three recruits sign with FBS programs in 2016, said. “It’s very disappointing. Every year, we would have kids that didn’t need to leave the Houston area to get exposure to out-of-city or out-of-state schools. Not every kid can afford the major expense to travel to a camp. People who make the decisions need to remember that it is all about the kids who are chasing dreams.”

Paul Myerberg: “The new legislation hurts the Group of Five, but the real losers are clear: under-recruited prospects who used these camps to gain access to potential scholarship offers. If a move designed to even the playing field on a conference-wide level, the NCAA has instead robbed prospective student-athletes from casting their own wide recruiting net.

For every five-star recruit there are hundreds — if not thousands — of prospects angling for an opportunity. Technological advancements, such as the Hudl program used on nearly every level of football, have made it easier to sell oneself to an FBS or FCS program. Yet for school or player alike, there was no replacing the in-person audition.

There’s also a dollars-and-cents issue. Official visits are paid for by the host university, but can only be held during the regular season. At any other point, recruits must pay their own way to visit a university — demanding not only time but money, particularly if the trip includes family members.

Satellite camps brought recruiting to a local level, allowing recruits in a certain region — as with California prospects and Boise State last summer — similar access to coaches and instruction at a fraction of the cost. Based on what they saw at their camps, Boise State coaches estimated that six or seven recruits would be extended scholarship offers.

There’s the paradox of the satellite-camp ban: While it aids the SEC, keeping interlopers out of its recruiting backyard, the new legislation comes at a substantial cost to a wide swath of the FBS — and to the majority of potential student-athletes, many of whom leaned on the access provided by these camps to raise their own recruiting profile.

Seem fair? It’s not. Aimed a closing a loophole, the NCAA ban has instead slammed the door on the individuals it is designed to represent.”

I’m detecting a common theme here.  Then there’s this, too.

This was Alleva last spring to 104.5 FM ESPN in Baton Rouge: “Mainly what I’m concerned about is other schools coming into our state and stealing our kids.”

“Our” kids, eh?  I didn’t realize all Louisiana high schoolers belong to LSU.  Must be a real bitch for the other in state schools.

“We had Georgia State, West Georgia, Kennesaw State, Georgia Southern, and App State all lined up to come to our camp with Ohio State,” Central (Georgia) Gwinnett coach Todd Wofford said. “They loved and wanted that chance to evaluate that many kids that they wouldn’t have had a change to otherwise. I think people forget all about them with this decision. They don’t have the budget of major universities and we will see opportunities lost because of this decision.

“This decision impacts so many players on so many different levels. The high school recruit is the big loser today.”

And the big winner?  Well, start here…

“This happened because the SEC coaches are mad at Jim Harbaugh,” said one non-Power Five head coach. “That’s all. It’s a (expletive) joke. Think about all the kids who could’ve ended up getting MAC scholarships because they got seen by someone who probably would never have saw them before. That’s who you’re really hurting. What about those kids? It’s going to force these kids to spend more money. All you’re doing is providing more exposure.”

…  add to it the three other P5 conferences that voted with the SEC to end the practice.  And don’t forget to throw a little shit Harbaugh’s way for grandstanding about a practice that had gone on quietly and usefully for a number of years.

Nice, guys.  Give yourselves a collective pat on the back.

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UPDATE:

Paul Johnson on the satellite camp ban: "They finally got it right."

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) April 9, 2016