Saban calls for college football czar

Published 6:46 am Wednesday, June 1, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Maybe this is what Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh had in mind all along.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But the SEC football coaches, holed up at a five-star resort in Destin, Florida, for their spring meetings, are pretty much unanimous in reporting that the college football sky is falling.</span>

<span style="font-style: italic;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Run for your lives.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They have barely stuck a toe into the murky waters of satellite (off-campus)</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">camps for high school kids, and already they are sure that those foul things will be the ruination of their sport.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They might be right.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Save us from ourselves,” they seem to be saying.</span>

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<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Already, Nick Saban is pounding on the lectern.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Harbaugh must be smiling.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He started all of this, after all.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He certainly didn’t invent satellite camps.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They’ve been around for a while, even in the South.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The SEC coaches were just able to ignore them and go about their business.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It was just schools in the area from the non-power conferences doing what they could do by traveling about and partnering with schools, sometimes high schools, to offer the services of their staffs for a camp or two.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The SEC settled the problem for itself very simply. The league banned its coaches from straying too far from campus for such affairs.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Probably, I’m guessing, at the coaches’ request.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Big whoop. It wasn’t like Georgia was going to lose any recruits to Southern Miss because that school sponsored a football camp in Mobile, Alabama.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It also gave the coaches a little more precious free time in the summer.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But then the smooth-talking Harbaugh started showing up with the Michigan brand, threatening to tap into the Southern-fried talent load — and if he took his shirt off again, he might have all the good Southern womenfolk following him back to Michigan, too.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Trouble right here in SEC football country.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So the SEC flexed its muscle to get</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">a rule pushed through in April banning the off-campus camps altogether and also everywhere.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But less than a month later, it was rescinded by the NCAA’s Division I council.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So the land rush (and the body-snatching?) was back on.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The SEC then had no choice but to rescind its own rule and turn its coaches loose, with no idea what to expect.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">One thing about college football, especially the SEC version, is that you have to keep up with the Joneses (Sabans).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Even if nobody sees any real value in the off-campus satellite camps, suddenly the SEC was going to do satellite camps like nobody’s business.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s like your state-of-the-art weight room that just became obsolete because Alabama constructed a water fall or maybe a trendy rock-climbing wall of its own.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s one thing when low-budget schools outside the Power Five were conducting a few off-campus camps.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The SEC schools will spend millions on satellite camps if they think it will get one recruit — or keep them from losing one.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And all because they want to pass on a little football knowledge to some eager young high school players?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">OK, stop chuckling.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But that is the premise of the camps, you understand.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s spelled out ?— no recruiting is allowed during camps.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“This is the wild, wild west,” Saban shouted from Destin Tuesday. “They say this is about opportunities for kids. It’s about recruiting.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Don’t worry. He can say that without fear of reprisal.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">See, there are no NCAA rules broken if coaches at these camps — in the course of passing out football pointers — just happen to take note of, even measure, the size, strength, 40-time, maybe some exceptional footwork, of the eager young lads.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And — surprise, surprise — the high school kids who show up tend to be those who need the tutoring the least. The strongest and swiftest.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s always been the wink-wink agreement.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You can’t “recruit” at a camp that is all about recruiting.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But, for the most part, it kind of works.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Mainly, for coaches it’s all about showing your face. Being visible. Standing out. Getting people talking about your school.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Harbaugh is the master … but it’s not like he’s dealing with novices among SEC coaches.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They’ll figure it out. The one-upsmanship will soon commence.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And that’s the danger.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">These satellite camps are already being compared to the sleazy world of AAU basketball.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And now you’re adding the element of SEC coaches to that mix?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Gee, what could possibly go wrong?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If there are rules to bend — and bend some more — SEC coaches will find a way to slap them silly and toss them around like rag dolls.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“There needs to be somebody who looks out for what’s best for integrity of the game,” Saban said calling for a commissioner of college football.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And save the SEC from itself.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Perhaps Saban knows that once the SEC jumps into satellite camps with both feet, it won’t be pretty.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They might all end up on probation.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And perhaps that was Harbaugh’s diabolical master plan.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AZaphdingbatdot7pt">l</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Scooter Hobbs</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">covers LSU</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">athletics. Email him at</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">shobbs@americanpress.com</span>

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<p class="p1">Follow Scooter Hobbs on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ScooterAmPress">twitter.com/ScooterAmPress</a>

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