Friday found the NCAA again making rules that impact the football recruiting process. While some will place the focus of the new “Satellite Camp” rules on the shoulders of Jim Harbaugh, in reality the focus should be on the many high school football prospects that struggle to attend college football camps to begin with.
Over the many years of covering college football recruiting and through the experiences of my own parents, getting kids to college camps is expensive.
With college camps averaging between $35-75 per camp even with the satellite camps, it now becomes an even bigger burden on parents who now must come up with the money needed to travel to a college campus. Gas, time and food just increased for all concerned.
I know of many high school coaches who have pulled money out of their own pockets to help a kid attend a college camp. Now, they’ll also have to find a way for the kid to get to campus.
Dave Berk Consulting is based in Southwest Ohio and each summer the University of Cincinnati holds a handful of camps. But also coming to the region has been Akron, Ohio University, Bowling Green, Kent State and Toledo. Each of these camps allow prospects in the region to be seen that otherwise may not be in the position to drive to their campus.
Add in the fact college assistant coaches may no longer attend camps at other schools and the newest rule by the NCAA just looks stupid.
Over the years I would suggest to many parents to save up the money to attend one of Ohio State’s top prospect camps. Many of these players were not Ohio State material or being recruited by the Buckeyes, but coaches from Mid American Conference programs not on the Buckeyes upcoming schedule would all be in attendance. In the end it was a win-win for the high school prospects and the lower budget programs in the MAC.
Let’s just hope the NCAA sees the error in their new rule and tweak them to where the high school football player will again have a chance to receive maximum exposure without the expected increase in cost.