Several Big 12 coaches hope satellite camp ban will be reversed
Each and every college football off-season, like clockwork, one or two controversial issues emerge and split nearly everyone involved in the game — coaches, administrators, players, fans and media members — into camps. Contentious debates play out through news conferences, sports talk radio and social media.
These debates have included no-huddle, up-tempo offenses; recruiting restrictions; transfer rules; expanded student-athlete benefits; and many other hot-button issues.
So what has become this spring’s signature, hotly debated college football issue?
That would be the existence — and recent ban — of so-called “satellite camps,” which involve major NCAA football programs and their coaches co-hosting camps with lower-division colleges or high schools outside of their home states. The NCAA Division I Council passed a rule eliminating satellite camps earlier this month, although an intense backlash from coaches,
recruits and their families have cracked the door back open, creating the possibility of a reversal.
The satellite camp craze began nearly a decade ago after the NCAA passed a rule limiting programs to hosting summer camps within 50 miles of their campus or within their home state. That led to some coaches finding a loophole and “co-hosting” camps in other states.
Several Big 12 programs — including Oklahoma and Oklahoma State — have taken advantage of satellite camps for many years, co-hosting events in Texas that have allowed them to discover talented, but under-the-radar prospects in high-population spots like the Dallas and Houston areas.
The Southeastern and Atlantic Coast Conferences have both banned their coaches from being involved with satellite camps for many years, but the intense debate went to another level when Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh began aggressively holding such camps in the South last year.
That helped lead to this month’s rule change which, interestingly, passed with a supportive vote from the Big 12 Conference. OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said recently that the internal vote among league members was very close.
According to a story posted Tuesday to ESPN. com, the new rule could still be rescinded because it did not pass with an 85 percent majority. And although the ban went into effect immediately after its passage, the rule change won’t become official until the NCAA Board of Governors meet next week.
In addition, Oliver Luck — the former West Virginia athletic director who is now a high-level NCAA executive — reportedly said during a Tuesday speaking engagement that the NCAA could revisit the satellite camp ban.
On a Big 12 spring media teleconference later Tuesday, several league head coaches expressed support for reversing the ban. The biggest advantage in allowing such camps, those coaches said, is that it allows recruits who don’t have the financial means to travel the opportunity to be discovered.
“If we truly care about kids and what’s best for them, and giving them great opportunities, I think (overturning the ban) is something we have to look at,” said Kansas coach David Beaty.
“I do think it hurts kids at the end of the day.”
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said if the ban on satellite camps stands, his staff might consider adding an additional summer camp in late July to accommodate more prospects.
Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy expressed confidence that the ban would be reversed, but said if it isn’t, his staff will work to find creative new ways to identify and connect with prospects.
At TCU, Gary Patterson said he plans to divide his summer camps by grade this year — creating separate camps for high school freshmen, sophomore, juniors and seniors — to allow for more individual attention.
First-year Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, who was previously Toledo’s head coach, was particularly emphatic Tuesday in supporting satellite camps.
Campbell said while he was at Toledo, his staff co-hosted several of them each year, including one near the Detroit area.
“My comments have been very strongly against (the ban),” Campbell said. “Not so much as a disadvantage for our program or programs in general.
“I think it’s just a severe disadvantage for young people.”