This site has taken a clear stance on the thorny issue of satellite camps: they're good for kids, and if they're good for kids they're good for the game.
The NCAA disagreed.
Announced Friday, the NCAA's Division I Council has put an immediate halt on all satellite camps:
The Council approved a proposal applicable to the Football Bowl Subdivision that would require those schools to conduct camps and clinics at their school’s facilities or at facilities regularly used for practice or competition. Additionally, FBS coaches and noncoaching staff members with responsibilities specific to football may be employed only at their school’s camps or clinics. This rule change is effective immediately.
The ruling is a loss for under-recruited players in highly-recruited areas -- read: kids living from Interstate 35 in Texas and eastward -- who wanted to get a glimpse at far-away programs without springing for airline tickets or using one of their five official visits and the programs who wanted to recruit them.
And it's a big win for the SEC and ACC, but mainly the SEC. Those were the only two Power 5 leagues who stood against satellite camps, and it was the SEC who stomped its feet the loudest. It's also a victory for coaches and their families who would rather spend what precious downtime they had in the off-season doing even more recruiting.
But to think this will put a stop to Jim Harbaugh and other like-minded coaches' southern ambitions would be the height of fallacy. It may be through a loophole in the rule book, it may be through hologram technology he is at this moment demanding Michigan's engineers create, or it may be through avenue our mortal minds can't even conceive, but Harbaugh will find a way to get in front of the players he wants to recruit.
And where Harbaugh goes, others will follow.
Elsewhere in NCAA jurisprudence, the NCAA has deregulated electronic communication in football recruiting. Have fun on Snapchat, Mr. Saban.