Photo Credit: Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com

Fight the Power: The Fight Against the NCAA’s Satellite Camp Ban

Posted onAuthorGarrett Fishaw

According to NCAA.org, the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s goal is “student-athlete success on the field, in the classroom and for life”. What a bunch of crap, huh? Led by Mr. Millionaire, Mark Emmert, the NCAA cares about one thing and one thing only, the almighty dollar.

Here’s my favorite piece of bullshit from the organization’s website:

There is a lot of talk about how much money college sports generates. But did you know that more than 90 percent of the NCAA’s revenue goes to support student-athletes? The NCAA and its member campuses are committed to providing opportunities for student-athletes to compete in college while pursuing their educations.

This is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization that makes millions and millions of dollars off of players in several sports, all in exchange for a “free” education.

Yeah, I know, it’s laughable.

But this isn’t a piece about how ridiculous it is that this organization doesn’t pay or fairly compensate its most important workers. This is about the NCAA and several conferences taking away the possibility for hundreds of unknown and less fortunate high school football players to have “success on the field, in the classroom and for life” in the form of an athletic scholarship.

If you’ve been living under a rock the last couple days, you may have missed the majority of conference representatives vote to ban satellite camps which is now being called “The Jim Harbaugh rule”:

Though the NCAA and SEC are receiving the majority of the flack (and for good reason since the SEC led the charge here), there were plenty of other coaches and voters from around the country that were against the idea of satellite camps. All of their reasons for the nationwide ban were pretty ridiculous, including coaches not wanting to work as hard and not wasting time since those players aren’t smart enough anyways:

Now, I get the need for coaches wanting to be able to spend more time with their families. That’s extremely important and should be a priority. However, these are the same coaches that brag about watching film until 3am and can now spend all day and night texting recruits. So, how about they find a better excuse than using their families as a pawn in their game?

So, most of the coaches against it didn’t want to work that hard because (for the most part) being the highest paid public employee in a state means you should have as much time off as the school teachers. You know, the public employees that are much more important than football coaches and who are grossly underpaid. And since some don’t want to work as hard, these people think no one should be able to put in that work.

No, really.

Ridiculous doesn’t even begin to explain my feelings towards this reasoning, let alone the true reasoning behind the ban. It’s all about recruiting and the SEC, ACC and others keeping Jim Harbaugh and other northern coaches out of their fertile territory and away from their local talent.

But what was clearly lost in the shuffle of these coaches not wanting to compete is how they’ve screwed over the thing the NCAA is out to help most: the kids.

This ruling not only bans future camps all across the country but it also stops camps like, most notably, the Sound Mind Sound Body camp in Detroit from hosting college coaches going forward. And, man, did this receive a ton of backlash, a new hashtag and even a petition to change the ruling from college players and recruits who’ve made their names at the camp and many others:

So, if the NCAA is all about the student-athletes, like they say, shouldn’t they be listening to the players? How about the coaches and camp directors that are all for giving recruits more opportunities?

How about the players without a large enough voice to be heard? So many kids in the 2017, 2018, 2019 classes and beyond now may never have the opportunity to show their talents to coaches, both Power 5 and smaller schools, from across the country that could end up extending a scholarship offer and changing their lives for the better. It’s a shame and every person, conference representative and coach that put their own agenda in front of the good of the children’s should be ashamed of themselves.

Here’s to hoping those people feel horrible about themselves, end up apologizing for being selfish and hoping the petition and hashtag take off enough to actually see a change in the ruling.

#ChangeNCAA

 

Photo Credit: Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com

Garrett Fishaw
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