Jim Harbaugh suggests another option for satellite camp ban

DETROIT - You cannot talk satellite camps without mentioning Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh in there somewhere. He and all but two of his football coaches held a coaches clinic at the Horatio Williams Foundation in downtown Detroit, where he addressed the immediate ban of satellites camps, a topic he has been the poster child for over the last couple of years.

The Sound Mind Sound Body camp is one of the largest, and most unique camps in the country, because it allows big-time college head coaches like Harbaugh to give on-field instruction to high school players. The NCAA recently passed a new rule prohibiting that from happening now, possibly ruining what made the camp so special.

"I heard some of you were upset that we have a camp scheduled the same day as the Sound Mind Sound Body camp," Harbaugh said to the youth coaches in the room. "But that's a kicking camp, and plus, with the new rules, we can't attend those camps anymore. I'm not sure what's going to happen with the camp going forward, but it's a bummer. I don't believe it's good for high school football, I don't believe it's good for college football, I don't believe it's good for coaches, and I don't believe it's good for the student-athlete, as it reads right now."

All is not lost for the camp, though. The rule does allow camps to take place on the campus, or at facilities used primarily for practice or competition by member schools. And if the camp is held at a college, that school cannot recruit or sign any player that attended the camp, because it is viewed as a recruiting tool. But Harbaugh found a loop-hole, of course.

"The option for Sound Mind Sound Body would be to have the camp at a college that does not have a football team, and is run by that college," he said. "Oakland University does not have a football team, I believe, and if that is a possibility, then all of us coaches college coaches would attend. But there will still be more specifics, I'm sure, that will be defined to get clarification as we go."

The Sound Mind Sound Body camp is June 10 at Wayne State University. The camp was started 13 years ago, and has serviced thousands of youth football players in the Detroit area, including many of Harbaugh's players at UofM. The camp also makes stops in Atlanta, Washington D.C., Tampa, and Los Angeles.