First they were banned, then they were not. It took the NCAA just twenty days to collectively reverse course on a decision that you would think would take them years to decide. The issue at hand was muddied by the governing body and their decision to ban them in the first place–a move that seemed counterintuitive at best and potentially a politically messy one for them at worst. Either way, if there was ever a reason to actually empathize with the NCAA–a feeling that is rarely expressed these days and with good reason–it’s on this issue. The issue at hand (for those that have been living under a rock in the recruiting world) is satellite camps and how to deal with the two-ton elephant in the room.
On April 8th, the collective explosions of tempers at programs from Miami to Seattle, from San Diego to Portland (Maine, that is) were deafening. Schools across the country had been effectively told they were not welcomed outside a fifty-mile radius of their campus. People took to social media (as is the standard operating procedure these days) with their displaced and misguided anger (as is the standard operating procedure these days) and started blaming coaches by name. They started blaming entire conferences–and regions–and then spoke about certain coaches within those conferences as though they were some sort of Kaiser Soze-esque figureheads that were secretly manipulating capitalism and dictating national policy through their closed-minded viewpoints.
On April 28th, less than three weeks later, the collective explosions weren’t from their temper, it was from their screams of joy and instantaneous running man dancing on Instagram and in front of pictures of the evil-doers themselves in their offices and locker rooms that were filling the air. It was the big-meanies from the SEC and the ACC–namely Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher–who were being mocked and told to take a hike back to their Draconian Villages and be dictators on their own turf. In one sense, the Burger Kings of the world were told that an Arby’s was going to be built in their parking lot and there wasn’t damn thing they could do about it. Deal with it. Although that’s exactly how capitalism works in the regular world, it’s a bitter pill to swallow for the power-brokered and monopolistic culture of the college football elites.
It was outright captivating to see how quickly the democratic process was put into motion immediately following the decision to ban the camps. Petitions were created. Trips to the NCAA’s headquarters and threats of litigation at the highest levels were being staged. The “smaller” schools–aka the FCS’ and non-Power 5 were justifiably angered by the decision. Hugh Freeze and Urban Meyer eventually made the statements that they were in favor of the camps as long as it stayed about the smaller and non P5’s–and not about the big-dawgs that had the financial capabilities to recruit wherever they wanted.
As is the standard operating procedure with sports–and society in general these days–there were elements where both sides made great points, but simultaneously expressed that possibly coming to a consensus or middle ground was going to be harder than building a fire in a tropical storm. There had to be absolutes. There HAD to be a way to stop the rich from getting richer while still allowing the kids–who, are like, the most important thing in this, you know?–to benefit from the actual tangible benefits these camps provided. Namely, exposure to twice as many sets of eyes and ears than they would be able to be exposed to under normal circumstances.
This all would have been cool if not for Jim Harbaugh, right? Well, not exactly. He was simply the first to start massing the rules to the point of becoming a gas station chiropractor straight-up adjusting spines into full-blown scoliosis while representing a school that couldn’t possibly be any more quintessential in its status as a blue-blood. If the idea was to bring football to the masses, Michigan isn’t exactly the all-inclusive guiding light you think it is. The academic standards are rather difficult to say the least and it truly is where the elitist of the elites in the midwest flock to attend on many levels from law to medicine to business on down the line. That doesn’t even take into account the kind of ACTUAL SKILLS needed to play at the school. Brining elite to the masses isn’t that easy.
The Harbaugh Experiment was about recruiting. Yes, it was about exposure, but if it wasn’t about recruiting then why have it in the first place? There absolutely was an “element” of recruiting involved even if the intentions were pure in nature. Harbaugh just happens to subscribe to the Blake’s theory from Glengarry GlenRoss in terms of selling his product and that’s to always…be…closing. That’s absolutely nothing wrong with that kind of approach because the “business” aspect of college sports adamantly dictates it’s all about winning and with the winning, comes the money. It is–as “they” say, what it is.
The ban was overturned, and rightfully so. Look, Alabama and Florida State literally have ZERO issues recruiting outside of their quote-unquote market. In case you haven’t noticed, Auburn appears to have built a satellite campus–forget a camp–in the Tampa Bay Area and along the I-4 corridor. This wasn’t–nor should ever be–about pointing the finger at the big schools for wanting to protect their turf. Nor should it be about pointing the finger at the small schools for wanting to get access to kids at a much more efficient rate than they would otherwise.
In fact, nobody should have fingers pointed at them until the NCAA decides EXACTLY what it’s going to do with the rule moving forward. Something they have said they are going to do. Until then, let’s try not to act like we’re living in outer space ON a satellite with the idea that somehow one side is right, and the other is wrong. We just have to live with the fact that compromise will truly be the only solution to this issue and that getting adults to agree on an issue that will ultimately effect the kids more than themselves–will be harder than winning your league at a 5,000-1 shot. Wait, that actually happened.