NCAA reverses course on satellite camp ban

In the aftermath of the NCAA Division I Council’s ban on satellite camps earlier this month, there was intense backlash from coaches, recruits and their families, who argued that it would unfairly cost underthe-radar — but talented — prospects opportunities.

Apparently those voices were heard, as the NCAA Division I Board of Directors voted Thursday to rescind the satellite camp ban 20 days after it was enacted.

The camps are the result of a loophole in the NCAA rulebook, whereby Football Bowl Subdivision coaches co-host camps with smaller colleges or high schools in places where NCAA rules forbid them from hosting official camps.

Coaches like Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops and Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy began taking advantage of

Jason Kersey

satellite camps nearly 10 years ago after the NCAA limited coaches to hosting summer camps within 50 miles of their home campus or within their home state.

The Sooners and Cowboys co-hosted camps in the Dallas and Houston areas for nearly a decade, but the camps became more polarizing nationally last year, when Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh co-hosted satellite camps within the SEC’s footprint.

The SEC and ACC already banned their coaches from participating in satellite camps, although after Thursday’s decision by the Board of Directors, the SEC will reportedly lift its ban.

Following the NCAA ban earlier this month, Stoops spoke out in favor of allowing the camps, giving the example of junior center Jonathan Alvarez as someone who benefited from such an event.

After the OU spring game, Alvarez himself expressed disappointment with the ban.

“I feel like it’s a bad thing to do,” Alvarez said. “There’s a lot of kids like me, coming out of the DFW area and out of Texas — a really highly recruited area — and we get overlooked a lot. Those little camps really help a lot to show that we are good and we have skills.”

Several Big 12 coaches spoke in favor of allowing the camps to resume earlier last week on a media teleconference.

“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.”

Now, the camps will live on, although the Board of Directors did direct the Council “to conduct a broad assessment of the FBS recruiting environment.”

“The Board of Directors is interested in a holistic review of the football recruiting environment, and camps are a piece of that puzzle,” Board of Directors chair Harris Pastides said in a news release. “We share the Council’s interest in improving the camp environment, and we support the Council’s efforts to create a model that emphasizes the scholastic environment as an appropriate place for recruiting future student