This past week the NCAA reversed a weeks-old ban on satellite camps. While it has been portrayed as a simple issue, there are shades of grey. The best way forward for all in the Wild West of recruiting is a strong compromise fitting these camps into the overall recruiting calendar.
When the ban was originally put in place the vocal reaction was swift from both sides. The ban’s reversal was partly because the pro-satellite camp had better messaging focused on two narratives that resonated with the college football media.
First, the ban was portrayed as a selfish attempt by southern schools to limit other schools’ access to their talent-rich backyards. With 64 of the Rivals.com National Top 100 players playing in the SEC/ACC Southern states, and given many people’s blind acceptance of recruiting rankings, it seemed a reasonable argument.
Second they argued the ban limited exposure for under-the-radar recruits, particularly ones who lack money to travel to faraway camps.
Like all anecdotal examples there is some validity in those points.
But I come at this discussion having spent a long time in college football and understanding the overall recruiting pressures faced by both coaches and high school players.
Satellite camps are part of a larger framework, just one part of the overall recruiting process. You can’t settle this one issue without looking at how it impacts the whole.
In football, once spring practice is done, coaches spend a number of weeks from mid-April through the end of May on the road in an evaluation period. Coaches can visit a high school, watch players work out, get transcripts but they cannot have contact with the players.
That is among the most ignored rules in the NCAA rule book.
There have been repeated attempts to change spring recruiting from an evaluation period to a contact period to allow coaches to talk to players in the school. In the early 2000s I was part of a meeting of Big Ten recruiting coordinators. One of the more divisive issues was allowing coaches to talk to kids in school in the spring.
Certainly it would have made it easier for the coaches, not so much for the students.
If that rule changed, imagine the top players in the country repeatedly being pulled out of class for meetings. If Alabama and LSU showed up at the same time the coach who went first would burn as much time with that player before allowing the other school to talk to him. Now multiply that by 60 schools over 15 school days. Can that player do well academically with all those distractions?
Over a decade after that Big Ten meeting there’s still a push to change the spring recruiting rules.
The spring recruiting period’s lack of contact is relevant to the satellite camp discussion. Coaches love satellite camps because they are a gigantic loophole in the recruiting calendar. They can be on the road in June to evaluate and contact recruits outside of a period where it permissible to have any recruiting activity off campus.
These “camps” aren’t camps. They’re paid tryouts for these players and recruiting events for the coaches.
One of the other anti-satellite camp arguments is the additional travel to June camps and time spent away from their families. That is also time coaches could be on campus and accessible for their current players. There are also additional travel costs for each school when you send your whole coaching staff to camps away from campus.
All sides have valid points and there is middle ground if evaluated in the overall context of recruiting.
If these camps are really about letting these kids get exposure, the college football conferences could sponsor free camps in the top metropolitan areas in each conference’s footprint. The camps would be open to all college coaches.
For the high school players to participate they’d be required to sign up for and submit an updated transcript to the NCAA’s Eligibility Center. That helps them understand sooner what they’ll need to do academically. It also gives college coaches a read on each player’s academics.
The camp would also include meetings with NCAA Eligibility Center representatives to explain to parents and players the recruiting rules and academic requirements.
To ease concerns of coaches and administrators about travel costs and time away from families and teams there is also a compromise. If your school takes part in a satellite camp it would count as part of your spring evaluation period limit. Every day you use at a summer satellite camp costs you a day on the road in the spring.
The satellite camp compromise offers a tradeoff. College coaches can go to satellite camps and the NCAA gets the academic information on every player. For the players, they get free exposure to coaches from all over the country and academic information. Each school’s coaching staff can decide whether a high school evaluation or a satellite camp is more valuable.
A satellite camp compromise within the larger context of today’s recruiting offers schools and players a chance to find some balance in the offseason recruiting calendar. With the pressures on coaches, players and schools that balance is needed now more than ever.
