Michigan Football: Satellite Camp Ban Is Also Telling About Fans
Michigan football won’t be able to host satellite camps anymore after the NCAA banned them, and it’s showing a side of fans we need to acknowledge.
When news came that the NCAA is banning satellite camps, effective immediately, all eyes of course turned to Michigan football and Jim Harbaugh.
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The NCAA obviously made this move in response to complaints from schools/coaches/athletic directors within the SEC and ACC about Harbaugh hosting satellite camps and thus making a sizable recruiting impression.
They don’t like Harbaugh when he takes his team to Florida for practice over spring break; they don’t like him when he’s inviting other coaches to camps; and they certainly don’t like him when he’s hosting satellite camps across the country. Now two of these pegs have been knocked down with one sweep.
Because not only are satellite camps off the table, but coaches can’t attend camps at schools where they’re not employed.
So you can obviously see where Michigan fans are upset over this. But then something happened in the midst of our being angry that had me scratching my head, though it didn’t really surprise me.
People started pretending to care about student-athletes and how this ban is affecting them. That’s totally fair, and it is the discussion we should be having, but let’s not sit here and pretend you have a vested interest in high school players who are under-recruited and could use the extra exposure.
What you really care about is how this is going to affect Michigan going forward.
That’s fine; it’s OK if you aren’t up in arms about the other fight involving the athletes. We only have so many hours in a day to invest in things that make us mad.
For some of you, I understand you do have a genuine interest in the welfare of student-athletes. Maybe you were a student-athlete yourself, or maybe it’s honestly just something you’re passionate about.
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But for the majority of people, how this ban affects student-athletes is nothing more than a way for us to pretend that we’re taking a high moral stand on this issue.
“Think of the kids!” sounds a hell of a lot better than “But this hurts my favorite team!”
Before you accuse me of being heartless, yes, of course I’m upset that the NCAA let a couple conferences bully it into a decision that will undoubtedly hurt student-athletes moving forward, especially the ones who aren’t getting a lot of exposure. Instead of letting programs funded by millions and millions of dollars come to you, you have to pay your way to them. That sucks.
But I’m not going to put on my keyboard warrior getup and act like that’s what has my entire attention, something I see a lot of people doing.
I’ll finish by sharing a piece of advice given to me by Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel: “Earn attention, but only sincerely.”
Just because we have a talking point in the welfare of student-athletes doesn’t mean you need to pretend that it’s your top priority. Everyone knows why you’re mad.