The NCAA strikes again!
Effective immediately, the NCAA has shut down satellite camps with a ruling that requires all programs to conduct all camps or clinics at their own facilities.
Also, showing that if you one of college football’s greatest coaches (Nick Saban) throws a big enough fit, they’ll finally kiss the ring.
“The teams that have done them, what value did it serve,” Alabama head football coach Nick Saban said.
However, the reality is that the value was there. One could argue that it wasn’t for blue blood programs like Alabama, Ohio State or USC, but for a team like Texas Tech – who’s campus is 5 hours and change away from the biggest metropolitan city – it meant a whole lot.
“You know this was a great opportunity for a lot of kids who don’t have the money to make the trip out to Lubbock, who drive in from Dallas or Houston,” associate editor for RedRaiderSports.com’s Will McKay said. “Now you cut out a big pool of that, because kids can’t go to Lubbock.”
Although it still remains to be seen how this ruling will effect Texas Tech in comparison to other Big 12 schools, but there does seem to be a difference in opinion between recruiting analysts from across the state.
“I don’t think that it’s going to be this big insurmountable thing for coach Kingsbury and those guys out there in Lubbock,” former Rivals.com southwest recruiting coordinator Jason Howell said.
“You’ve just got to think about a lot of these kids, when you think about TCU and A&M, and Baylor, you know they live within two hours of those places. I know Tech has lost out on kids in the past because of that.
Now it may still be up for debate just what exactly the benefit is of these satellite camps, but coach Kingsbury has said before that something his staff has employed over the last few years, is making sure to see players perform in person before ever signing them on. It’s something that he actually credits his own defensive coordinator, David Gibbs, for bringing to the table since he arrived in Lubbock.
However, at this time, this ruling just creates even less opportunities for Kingsbury and his staff to do just that.
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