Jim Harbaugh: Satellite Camps Are Okay “In My America”

This is America. We can do what we want, when we want. And that's exactly how Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh feels as well.

Harbaugh has been going all over the country (mainly the southeast) hosting satellite camps, for the most part as a recruiting tactic. The BIG 10 has no rules about restricting satellite camps for schools, so he is not violating any NCAA rules when he hosts camps.

However, coaches in the SEC are expressing their discontent with other coaches migrating to the South to host camps, when the SEC expressively prohibits coaches from hosting satellite camps outside of their state.

He's an American, and like any normal American, Harbaugh has recently let everyone know that he's just taking advantage of his rights as an American.

"In my America, you're allowed to cross state borders. That's the America I know."

I know Nick Saban doesn't want to hear it, but the man does have a point.

If the BIG 10 conference doesn't prohibit coaches from going from state to state hosting satellite camps, then he isn't doing anything against the rules.

At the same time, the SEC has the power to change their rules to allow coaches in the SEC to host their own satellite camps, yet it hasn't happened yet.

That's like saying someone from the state of Mississippi saying a citizen of the state of Colorado should get arrested for buying marijuana in the state of Colorado. It's not against the law in Colorado. Until it is illegal in Colorado (which it probably never will be again), there's nothing legally that the random citizen of Mississippi can do about it.

Now I know the topic of satellite camps isn't an issue of legality, but the same logic applies. If the BIG 10 coaches are allowed to do it, then they're allowed to do it. If the SEC says that coaches can't do it, then they can't do it.

Should these rules be equal across the board? Maybe so, maybe not. But if so, then that will be one of the first dominoes to fall in destroying the autonomy that the Power 5 conferences fought so hard to obtain. That's the whole point of autonomy: to let the conferences and individual schools govern themselves.

If we revert back to the same rules for each conference, then what progress has the Power 5 conferences actually made?