Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is firing back at the NCAA and SEC coaches after satellite camps were banned last week.
When Michigan hired Jim Harbaugh as their head football coach in January of 2015, no one knew just how much he was going to change the way things went in college football. One of his biggest moves was going around the country holding satellite camps in an effort to get the best prep players to come play for the Michigan Wolverines.
Now those camps have been banned by the NCAA after a vote of the ten conferences that make up the FBS subdivision (with Power Five conferences like the SEC, ACC and Pac-12 voting for the ban, while the Big Ten was the only Power Five conference to vote against it).
Many feel the ban was aimed directly at stopping Harbaugh and Michigan, who planned to hold more camps this summer in the Southeast part of the United States and held part of their spring football practice in Florida this past March. Harbaugh, needless to say, is furious with the ruling and the message it sends according to Sports Illustrated’s Campus Rush:
"Harbaugh says the ruling was “knee-jerk … like somebody was shaving in the morning, cut themselves when they were shaving and said, ‘Let’s just ban satellite camps.’“I mean, what’s it based on? A survey? There wasn’t a lot of discussion or study. What are the facts? What are the perils and merits of making that decision? It just seemed lacking in that regard.”"
Harbaugh also took a shot at coaches from the conferences who voted for the ban, coming after Ole Miss Rebels coach Hugh Freeze said he already spends “too much time” away from his family:
"“You’ve got a guy sitting in a big house, making $5 million a year, saying he does not want to sacrifice his time. That is not a kindred spirit to me. What most of these coaches are saying is they don’t want to work harder.”"
Another casualty of the ruling is camps like the one held by Michigan State called Sound Body Sound Mind. The event in Detroit allows high school players to attend a football and life skills camps that is attended by coaches throughout the country and attempts to help shape the player both for their football future and life off the field, according to the Spartans’ director of college advancement, Curtis Blackwell:
"“When kids come out to a camp like Sound Mind Sound Body, it gives hope to young people,” Blackwell said. “If they play football and bust their butts, they deserve to have opportunity they can one day be there. They can walk on and go to college, that’s a win-win. That’s our duty as leaders.”"
The program has seen dozens of underprivileged students receive both athletic and academic scholarships as a result of meeting with coaches and administrators while attending SBSM, which was going to have national stops this year including Washington D.C., Atlanta and Houston.
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