Following up on yesterday’s discussion about the end of satellite camps, it’s a little interesting to see how the voting reportedly broke down.
According to ESPN’s Brett McMurphy the votes on the proposal were split as such. The SEC, ACC, Pac-12, Big 12, Mountain West and Sun Belt all voted in favor of the rule change. The Big Ten, AAC, Conference USA and MAC all voted against the rule change (in favor of continuing to allow satellite camps).
As Kalland writes, the Mountain West’s vote is the strange one.
The Mountain West figured to be one of the potential beneficiaries of satellite camps by sending coaches to camps at other schools. The Sun Belt’s vote for the rule change is a little less surprising, considering they are the school’s that benefit the most from players being overlooked by SEC and ACC schools, and can often land quality recruits that don’t get the exposure needed to receive offers from bigger programs.
Jim Harbaugh’s showboating aside, and as some of you noted in the comments yesterday, this change will have zero impact on the kids who are in the upper tier of recruits. They’ve already been noticed and the coaches will find their way to them, satellite camps or no satellite camps.
It’s the below the radar guys who will take the hit.
That is where the NCAA misses its mark with this rule change. In the fervor to stop Harbaugh, Urban Meyer and anyone else in the Big Ten from invading the southeast and expanding its recruiting footprint into an area long dominated by the SEC and ACC, the NCAA punishes a huge number of potential recruits that use those satellite camps to gain exposure they cannot otherwise get.
Most recruits can’t afford to travel to camps across the country, and for a two-star or three-star looking to get noticed, a satellite camp in their area may be the best chance they have at getting a look from schools outside of their area.
Can’t blame the Sun Belt coaches for looking out for themselves, I suppose. But there’s nothing about this rule change that can be construed as helping recruits become student-athletes.