Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher says he has no issue with Big Ten coaches such as Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer who have found a loophole in NCAA rules by holding satellite football camps in SEC and ACC country, but Fisher also says the NCAA is traveling down a slippery slope. “With these satellite camps, you’re opening up a Pandora’s box,” Fisher said on our Open Mike radio show Wednesday. “Those guys (organizers of the camps) are paying people to work there, paying for the facilities, there’s no limit on it. You want to open up a Pandora’s box in recruiting; somebody’s going to take advantage of that.” You think? I’m not sure, but I believe what Fisher is saying is this: What’s to stop, say, an Ohio State booster from conceivably going to a high school coach and stroking a big check to fund an entire football camp in exchange for the high school allowing the Buckeyes’ coaching staff exclusive access to hundreds of four- and five-star recruits during the summer. For the uninformed, satellite camps are a way for college football coaches to travel hundreds and thousands of miles away from their campuses to assist at a high school camp run by someone else. These camps used to be rarities, but now they are becoming more commonplace, especially among Big Ten coaches like Harbaugh, Meyer and Penn State’s James Franklin. When Harbaugh took over at Michigan, he and his coaching staff went on a nine-day barnstorming junket of satellite camps in Florida, Alabama, Texas, Pennsylvania and California. Meyer and his staff were at a satellite camp in Boca Raton last summer and this summer will host a camp in Lawrenceville, Ga. Fisher is absolutely right in that the NCAA rules make no sense. For instance, how is it that coaches can be a thousand miles away hosting camps with hundreds of recruits during a “quiet” period when they aren’t supposed to be on the road recruiting? Fisher also brought up a personal experience recently in which he was not permitted to speak at a coaching clinic at Bradenton’s IMG Academy — a renowned private high school and athletic training institute where prep players go to be developed into college players…
Continue Reading: Bianchi: FSU coach Jimbo Fisher on Jim Harbaugh, Urban Meyer satellite camps: "It’s Pandora’s …
