Jim Harbaugh 'outsmarting the system' at satellite camp

PRATTVILLE -- It was roughly halfway through Michigan's four-hour satellite camp at Prattville High School Friday morning when Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh needed to take a break.

The bombastic Harbaugh headed to a water cooler and with a line of players waiting to get to the faucet, unscrewed the lid and dropped a cup straight into the icy drink, starting a trend the crowd of youths then followed.

"We quarterbacks," said Harbaugh, who played the position at Michigan before a 14-year NFL playing career, "outsmarting the system."

It was an apropos missive on this hot June day from Harbaugh, whose mere presence as a northern agitator in the heart of the Deep South was made possible thanks to a loophole in NCAA legislation, which prevents coaches from hosting camps outside a 50-mile radius of their institution's campus, but allows for coaches be to guests anywhere else — provided the school's conference permits it.

"We want to coach football, that's why we are here," Harbaugh told the 475 high school age football players who came out to showcase their skills and receive instruction from the coaching staffs of Michigan, Samford, Jacksonville State, Faulkner, Huntingdon, Murray State and Birmingham-Southern after walking onto the field to the tune of "The Victors," the fight song of the winningest program in college football. "A day in football, we got a day in football, you know what that means? That means we can accomplish anything."

Satellite camps have become college football's geographic battleground issue the last two offseasons, with the SEC and ACC wanting the loophole closed to reflect their rule, which they argue is in the spirit of the NCAA legislation and does not condone what new SEC commissioner Greg Sankey calls "recruiting tours," but are outnumbered by the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12 as well as Notre Dame.

Though conducted in limited capacity by some Pac-12 and Big 12 schools in the past, a national controversy was sparked when former Vanderbilt coach James Franklin brought his Penn State staff down to Georgia State and Stetson last year. It was taken to another notch by Harbaugh, another northern aggressor, who along with his band of brothers in Maize and Blue invaded the land of the Black Belt for the second of 10 camps in a nine-day span Michigan coined the "Summer Swarm Tour" before the NCAA stepped in to stop the college from promoting its blitzkrieg of camps that will hit locations in Florida, Texas, California, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The South, in the form of the SEC, banded together and issued an ultimatum during its spring meetings last week: Either the rule of the South is adopted nationwide or the league's 14 coaching staffs will be free to do conduct their own satellite camps.

"Our folks will be free to fan out all over the country and have at it," former SEC commissioner Mike Slive said before announcing his retirement last week.

The politics of the issue are such that there is little chance for the SEC to get its way. It is both outnumbered and as Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick raised, a ban of satellite camps could be challenged by antitrust lawsuits, meaning the SEC and ACC coaches will almost certainly be conducting their own satellite camps this time next year. However the battle on the ground is already being waged as besides Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, Purdue and several other schools are holding satellite camps this summer, with Penn State and Notre Dame among those to do so last year.

"(SEC coaches) talked very specifically as it relates to these recruiting tours," Sankey said last week, "about their intent to canvas the nation if we're in the same circumstance next year."

Though the SEC's coaches present a unified opposition publicly on the issue, several could benefit if granted permission to hold their own.

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema and Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, who came into the league from the Big Ten and Conference USA, respectively, were initially unaware the SEC didn't allow the practice. Their programs, as well as Tennessee and Kentucky, which heavily recruit North Carolina and Kentucky, respectively, are among those who could use satellite camps to their advantage.

"I think it could benefit any of us for sure," Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. "It would benefit us for going to Ohio, but we also do a good job of getting those kids to come to our camp and get on campus for us."

LSU coach Les Miles, a Michigan alum and former Wolverines assistant, hasn't spoken with Harbaugh about satellite camps.

"I certainly think he's doing things he feels like needs to be done for Michigan," Miles said. "I'm for that, I'm for that. If the NCAA sees this as not recruiting, because it appears to me that many times that's what will be getting done in a variety of locations, then we'll obviously do it too."

If granted the freedom to hold his own, Miles isn't headed back to his alma mater.

"I wouldn't necessarily be in Ann Arbor," Miles said. "I'd look at where it would be most beneficial for LSU."

Alabama coach Nick Saban and Auburn coach Gus Malzahn are opposed to satellite camps, neither appears too concerned about those from outside the region trying to gain traction and beat them on the recruiting trail — yet.

"If you look at our conference, we've done very well with recruiting in the past," Malzahn said. "Some of (the satellite camps issue) is probably a little more overblown than people think."

On Prattville's campus, not far from the First White House of the Confederacy and where high schools still bear the names of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, there was a noticeable lack of representation from schools in the River Region besides Prattville among those in attendance.

With the Prattville camp getting so much national attention, there have been murmurings of blowback directed toward Lions coach and athletic director Chad Anderson for allowing Harbaugh a forum in Dixieland.

"You just hear a lot of talk," Anderson said. "Just a little rumbling or a little whatever like that."

But it won't stop Prattville, or more specifically the Autauga Education Foundation in conjunction with its annual A-plus banquet, from bringing in college coaches from far and wide for next year's camp, which the school announced will be June 3, 2016. Anderson said Ohio State, which will hold a satellite camp at Florida Atlantic later this month, and Pac-12 schools have expressed interest for next year.

"We got the hottest name in college football right now," Anderson said. "We'll welcome anybody that wants to work with our kids, promote our school and community."

Harbaugh and his staff offered instruction and feedback to players in individual drills before the former San Francisco 49ers coach later ditched his T-shirt to take part in a shirts versus skins game of "Peru Ball," a 12-on-12 exercise the Michigan staff came up with that's part football, European handball and soccer.

"That was a blast," Harbaugh said. "I was like a pig in slop today. It felt good to be out here playing football."

Several prospects with Michigan offers, including Prattville running back and Wolverines commit Kingston Davis, were at the camp but most of the players in attendance were hoping their play in front of so many college coaches would earn them more opportunities.

"You got to take advantage of (Michigan being in the South)," said Spain Park running back Perry Young, who claims offers from Cincinnati, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern and Middle Tennessee. "It's a big opportunity. You never know what could be the outcome of the whole camp.

"They could have a greater value in you than a school down South could."