Colorado University Athletics
MacIntyre Applauds Decision To Rescind Satellite Camp Ban
April 28, 2016 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre on Thursday applauded a vote by the NCAA Board of Governors that rescinded a ban on satellite camps.
The ban had been enacted in early April by the Division I Legislative Council.
“I'm glad they've allowed the satellite camps back,” MacIntyre said. “I think it definitely helps high school young men all over the country. It gives them an opportunity to be seen and it also helps a lot of small colleges that you satellite camp with. It helps their budgets, and it also helps the kids. They might not end up at a Colorado or Oregon, but at that small college they get seen there and they have opportunities for scholarships there.”
While four of the five Power Five conferences voted in favor of the ban — the Big Ten was the only major conference to vote against it — more and more coaches across the nation came out against the ban. In a media conference call with Pac-12 football coaches earlier this week, Washington State coach Mike Leach said 11 of the league's 12 coaches were in favor of satellite camps.
Satellite camps are camps and clinics hosted by schools away from their campus, and have become more and more popular in recent years.
With the ban rescinded, camp destinations CU coaches will now be attending include Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Southern California, Northern California, Utah and possibly Hawaii.
According to a press release from the NCAA, Board of Directors chair Harris Pastides, president of the University of South Carolina, said, “The Board of Directors is interested in a holistic review of the football recruiting environment, and camps are a piece of that puzzle. We share the Council's interest in improving the camp environment, and we support the Council's efforts to create a model that emphasizes the scholastic environment as an appropriate place for recruiting future student-athletes.”
The release also said the board asked the Council to consider the entire recruiting model, including potential modifications to camps and clinics participation.
Council chair Jim Phillips, a board member and athletics director at Northwestern University, said the Board's decision will give the Council an opportunity to review the recruiting environment in a more thorough way.
“It's clear that the membership has differing views on this subject, and the Council appreciates the Board's insights into this important issue,” Phillips said in the press release. “This review will provide an opportunity to identify the most effective ways prospective student-athletes can have their academic and athletic credentials evaluated by schools across the country."
CU's MacIntyre and many other coaches have supported satellite camps for a variety of reasons, among them that they offer a chance for lightly recruited players to be seen by high-profile coaches, as well as offer more players a chance to be seen by more coaches in general. The camps also offer coaches a chance to see players outside of their normal recruiting areas.
“They're excellent for the overall health of the sport,” MacIntyre said. “Let's say you are a young man who lives in Fresno, Calif., and you want to go to several camps. If there are five near you, you can go to five and you don't have to buy five plane tickets. For the young men who can't afford those plane tickets, the camps are a major help.”
When the ban was originally announced in early April, MacIntyre and his staff had to begin reworking a large portion of their summer plans, as CU had several satellite camps scheduled.
Now, MacIntyre said, the Buffs can go back to their original plan.
“We'll go back to our Plan A and run with it,” MacIntyre said. “There will be a little bit of changing and some adjustments, but we'll get back to Plan A as much as possible and move forward.”
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
