If you thought there was enough politics involved with the controversial satellite camp ban issued by the NCAA before, you haven’t seen nothing yet. The Department of Justice has initiated an informal inquiry on the recent satellite camp ban, according to Paul Meyerberg of USA Today.
The focus of the inquiry is reported to be on whether or not shutting down satellite camp opportunities for coaches hurts the opportunities available to potential student-athletes, which has been the crux of the argument from the start for those in opposition of the ban. This would potentially mark the first time this topic has been studied in any capacity, other than empirical evidence shared by college football players that have participated in some form of satellite camp in the past.
The NCAA’s Division 1 council voted in favor of a satellite camp ban, effective immediately. With that new ban in place, college football coaches are now restricted to working at camps on their own campuses or within a certain distance from their campus. Members of the council representing the SEC, ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, Mountain West Conference and Sun Belt Conference voted in favor of the ban (although not without some controversy or lack of sound reasoning), while the Big Ten, MAC, Conference USA and American Athletic Conference all voted in opposition. In response to much of the outrage and fallout from the ruling, NCAA official Oliver Luck suggested the issue will likely be revisited by the NCAA.
One can only hope this somehow leads to some sort of congressional hearing that calls on Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze at the same time. Please make this happen.
