BleedGopher
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per ESPN:
The SEC and ACC, of course, have whined about the practice, which the Wolverines will push to the extreme with their upcoming "Summer Swarm" tour: a nine-day odyssey in which their coaches will work camps in Florida, Texas, California, Alabama and elsewhere. The SEC and ACC adhere to a rule prohibiting their coaches from working at camps more than 50 miles from campus, and those leagues are lobbying the NCAA to make that rule uniform throughout college football. (Southern hospitality, it seems, extends only so far when Yankees come to check out their football prospects). Incoming SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has even joked about having his teams work camps in State College, Pennsylvania.
This is why Harbaugh's invitation is at once ingenious and hysterical. He is welcoming up to two coaches from every college program in America to come work as instructors at Michigan's camp. For those schools forbidden to traverse the 50 miles from their campus, Harbaugh says, "we cordially invite your head football coach to be our keynote speaker."
What Harbaugh has done is call the bluff of every satellite camp critic. There's nothing behind their argument, of course, but the selfish desire to protect their own turf. If anything, Big Ten schools are merely closing the gap on a huge recruiting disadvantage by seeing a lot of prospects out of their area at one time in camps like these.
But mostly, Harbaugh is extremely intelligent, and this open invitation is one of his smartest moves since he became the Michigan coach. It makes him and the Wolverines look open and welcoming to all before they set about trying to raid other team's recruiting areas. And they probably don't even have to wash any extra towels for their SEC and ACC counterparts, whose petty complaining just got exposed, or their top Midwestern rivals, most of whom wouldn't dare be caught photographed with a Block M in the background .
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/118327/jim-harbaughs-invite-ups-ante-in-satellite-wars
Go Gophers!!
The SEC and ACC, of course, have whined about the practice, which the Wolverines will push to the extreme with their upcoming "Summer Swarm" tour: a nine-day odyssey in which their coaches will work camps in Florida, Texas, California, Alabama and elsewhere. The SEC and ACC adhere to a rule prohibiting their coaches from working at camps more than 50 miles from campus, and those leagues are lobbying the NCAA to make that rule uniform throughout college football. (Southern hospitality, it seems, extends only so far when Yankees come to check out their football prospects). Incoming SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has even joked about having his teams work camps in State College, Pennsylvania.
This is why Harbaugh's invitation is at once ingenious and hysterical. He is welcoming up to two coaches from every college program in America to come work as instructors at Michigan's camp. For those schools forbidden to traverse the 50 miles from their campus, Harbaugh says, "we cordially invite your head football coach to be our keynote speaker."
What Harbaugh has done is call the bluff of every satellite camp critic. There's nothing behind their argument, of course, but the selfish desire to protect their own turf. If anything, Big Ten schools are merely closing the gap on a huge recruiting disadvantage by seeing a lot of prospects out of their area at one time in camps like these.
But mostly, Harbaugh is extremely intelligent, and this open invitation is one of his smartest moves since he became the Michigan coach. It makes him and the Wolverines look open and welcoming to all before they set about trying to raid other team's recruiting areas. And they probably don't even have to wash any extra towels for their SEC and ACC counterparts, whose petty complaining just got exposed, or their top Midwestern rivals, most of whom wouldn't dare be caught photographed with a Block M in the background .
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/118327/jim-harbaughs-invite-ups-ante-in-satellite-wars
Go Gophers!!
