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Folks down in the Southeastern Conference have gotten in a tussle and fit about the act of Northern schools like Penn State, Michigan, and now Nebraska hosting "Satellite Camps" near SEC schools. The Huskers themselves are going to open up shop with these down near Georgia State University and such in June.
Well, SI's Stewart Mandel got a hold of Big Ten Conference Commish Jim Delany today, and Delany decided to pull no punches when it comes to what he thinks of the ideas.
Jim Delany on satellite camps: "I've never thought about it as objectionable."
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 29, 2015
Delany says any national discussion about satellite camps should also include a look at oversigning, grayshirting & "flipping" recruits.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 29, 2015
Delany: "There are some practices that are out there that are … legal that are far more objectionable than {satellite camps]."
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 29, 2015
WELL THEN JIM. Let's go over one item at a time shall we?
- Satellite camps are becoming the way that B1G schools and such are getting into talent rich areas. SEC folks are hampering for a fix to this, so much as Alabama HC Nick Saban calling for the NCAA to "take action" on the issue.
Furthermore, a "you better watch out" quote comes across as shallow as hell...
"I'm not sure that the others want our coaches going to places like State College, Penn.," Incoming SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said. "Because very clearly, if we do take the approach that others have ... it will certainly, I would expect, change the tone of the conversation."
To which this, I say.... feel free? Cause who is going to tell Nick Saban, Les Miles and Gary Pinkel no to those? Furthermore, I don't hear Art Briles, Gary Patterson or Kevin Sumlin quite upset yet about these camps coming to Texas.
Oh, wait, I know, it's weather. Got to be weather right? The snow never melts up North, and it's just unbearable! Ask Mark Richt himself!
Mark Richt on Jim Harbaugh's camp invitation to all coaches: "I don’t know how many guys wanna go up there and freeze their tail off."
— Seth Emerson (@SethEmerson) April 28, 2015
Funny thing is.. where would you want to be in June? Ann Arbor with a mean temp of 75 in the month... or Athens, which has the same weather pattern? Our own Salt Creek knows about Athens weather.
Mark Richt does not have a future in climatology, and that's okay.
— Salt Creek & Stadium (@SaltCreekCN) April 29, 2015
- Flipping: Well, there's not much you can fix here unless... well, I've gone over this already.
- Greyshirting: That's another issue which follows into oversigning. Take the curious case of one Christian Bell, who committed to Alabama back 53 weeks ago. He was thinking about checking out other schools (including Nebraska) when Saban (reportedly) told him that if he visited other spots, he would lose his spot with Alabama.
Come National Signing Day, Bell finds out that he's going to be "Greyshirted". In other words, he can't sign his Letter of Intenet and enroll with Bama till at leat January 2016 and not count until the Class of '16. What they don't tell you is that there's no obligation by Alabama to have a spot for him or follow through.
So, in other words, Bell may have waited a full year to not get a spot anywhere, when he could have signed with another school to play almost immediately. That is just the breaks huh?
But, yes, your camp down South is a bigger problem than having a kid commit to you and you having the ability to pull the rug underneath from him.
That's what Jim Delany is saying; that if you want to bark up one tree, every tree is in play. That is probably a talk that some schools and conferences don't want to play along with.
"SATELLITE CAMPS SHOULD BE BANNED!" ... "Well then let's discuss oversigning." ... pic.twitter.com/JqnHICNUiu
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) April 29, 2015