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.
Get The Picture 
Who pays for these camps? There are lots of athletes from single parent homes and/or very modest means. Are they supposed to be paying?
Also, how does the IMG Academy work? Who pays the tuition to these “schools” and do they actually have an academic program? Also, if IMG is fronting at least part of the bill, how does this keep the athletes away from the evil agents?
I think I know how all this really works, but I was wondering what the official stories are.
LikeLike
BTW today’s quote from Herschel is just one more reminder of what a DGD he still is.
LikeLike
Everyone who bemoans the decision says it hurts the students, but nobody seems to have any data about that point; at least I haven’t read anything but a tweet here and there to that effect. So I wonder how much it actually affects the student athlete. Thomas Davis comes to mind – which satellite camp did he go to? It seemed like he was completely unknown. I am just wondering where people get the idea that hundreds of second and third tier kids won’t get a chance at exposure without the camps.
And the video that came with the link is turrible – ‘the NCAA ruled in favor of the SEC’ meme is just false: it was voted on by the members. A vote is not a ruling. And since a number of other conference representatives voted for the proposal, the SEC was not the only conference in favor of the proposal. And the idea that Meatchicken is just trying to look out for the chilluns is ridiculous because they aren’t looking to come down here and pick up some second and third tier athletes. Come on, dudes.
LikeLike
Despite that there have been a number of kids who have expressed misgivings on social media in the last two days about the new rule, you choose to pick out one example from fifteen years ago to dismiss it all? Come on, dudes, indeed.
LikeLike
“there have been a number of kids who have expressed misgivings on social media in the last two days about the new rule”
Let me know when some one actually gets missed instead of just jumping on a social media meme.
LikeLike
Kinda hard to prove they got missed if they…ya know…get missed.
LikeLike
If they get missed, it will be like a black hole. It’s there, but you can’t see it. So you have to use mathematics to prove it exists.
LikeLike
If you want to be all about the kids, play club sports and let the NFL and NBA set up their own farm system for talented athletes. Let students who primarily want to be students go to college and those want primarily to play football or basketball go ahead and get paid for doing so.
LikeLike
Sounds bad on paper.
LikeLike
Do these schools have scholarships going unused? Since these kids and colleges can’t get hooked up most of these schools are having to only do 4 on 4 scrimmages. Where will they find high school talent to fill their rosters? For Christ’s sake it’s easier to get seen than it had ever been. You can email a coach your “tapes”. I’m so tired of everyone being a damn victim. There is a small group bitching. Everyone else is relieved that they can stay relatively close to home and don’t have to spread their coaching staffs paper thin to be a half a dozen places. Recruiting is crazy as hell already.
LikeLike
Have to agree with this. I can’t believe someone has any trouble at all publicizing themselves in this age of Twitter, YouTube, and everything else.
LikeLike
But getting to do reps in front of that coach is a lot different than sending in your tape. Just like the in person interview is better than just sending in your resume.
LikeLike
From those constantly lamenting the plight of the student-athlete, I don’t understand any outrage over not expediting the transition from recruit to student-athlete.
Further expediting that transition would seem to just lead to next logical step of lamenting the plight of the recruit.
LikeLike
So unless you’re undersigning, these kids you see at these satellite camps probably don’t make a difference anyway. I mean, the recruiting staff already knows who they are chasing, right?? Aren’t these camps only hosting players that aren’t on the current recruiting “radar”? So they are really low rated players as is if that’s the case. Sure there is always the diamond on the rough but if you recruit and sign enough 3/4/5 stars these camps aren’t needed.
I have no problem with these satellite camps, but the rule should be equal for all. Football isn’t a charity after all. Winning trumps all (which drives their revenue stream) and if there is any competitive disadvantage I can understand the issue that those conferences had problems with.
LikeLike
Funny how this camp crap went full retard when the NCAA put it to a vote. To put the Lie of those claiming some notion of ‘social justice’ in perspective, how many of the kids at IMG fit this ‘poor athlete’ claim? Not a damn one. All earned scholarship for their talent & academic ability. That’s the gist of it. Michigan didn’t choose Americus, Red Bank, or Philadelphia, MS for a simple reason: the return on investment.
All this subsequent Libtard whining is right in step with all the rest of the sjw/PC tripe. Michigan is FOR MICHIGAN just like Every other program. While I still don’t see the big stink as programs compete for kids anyway, to suggest that there is a disservice to poor or marginally talented kids by banning camps is insane. Poor kids in Every Sport that are talented get noticed every Day, see the exponential growth of Private School Athletics across America.
LikeLike
What does IMG have to do with satellite camps?
LikeLike
I dont think that most of the people complaining about satellite camps understand that the spring break IMG practice and satellite camps are different.
LikeLike
I agree that most don’t get that difference. From what I can tell this won’t impede going on the road for spring practice.
LikeLike
3% patriot, I can’t tell WTF you’re trying to say. Don’t bother to try to explain, though.
LikeLike
@Walt: agree. Wtf?
The explanation would either confuse me more or scare the crap out of me.
LikeLike
Sounds like our good buddy Mike Bobo may have taken one for the team.
LikeLike
It’s a zero sum game. Finite scholarships. The argument seems to be that coaches should be able to do unlimited camps so that – maybe – Kid A can get an offer over Kid B. A more efficient meritocracy.
There are a lot of other ways to achieve that. All the local kids who are promising athletes in football and basketball have been doing travel circuits since 7th grade or earlier at the expense of others. I’m talking kids who might get an FCS offer if they stuck with it.
This is just brain-dead SEC bashing. If camps are that important, fine, SEC coaches were building it into their plans. So were ACC coaches. It’s not an injustice, and it’s not the SEC’s fault.
LikeLike
Hey, just realized you and Jim Delaney now see eye to eye on something. My world just trembled a bit.
LikeLike
I thought free school wasn’t worth much anyways…who cares if a few kids miss out on a scholarship?
LikeLike
At least that’s the impression many on here impress on moi
LikeLike
I’ve been reading your blog for 2 years Senator, …I finally disagree with your views on something
LikeLike
It took you that long? 😉
LikeLike