Jim Harbaugh’s creativity provokes another football rules reaction
Jim Harbaugh’s envelope-pushing tactics are prompting others to call for a rewrite of NCAA rules.
The Southeastern Conference is pushing to stop the Michigan football team’s planned spring break trip to Florida – to hold several spring practice sessions – before it happens. Michigan’s plan is to practice at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. That’s smack in SEC territory, of course. But SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said location wasn’t the issue.
“If this was done in Montana during spring break we’d be having the full conversation,” Sankey told USA TODAY Sports.
As first reported by CBSSports.com, the SEC hopes the NCAA Football Oversight Committee will take up the issue as soon as possible, according to Sankey. The SEC sent a letter to other FBS conference commissioners and to the oversight committee.
Harbaugh taking Michigan to Florida for spring break
Sankey said the league’s chief issue was “tone” during a time when there is increasing concern over time demands placed on college athletes. Spring break has traditionally been time off for football players, even when spring practice has begun.
“I don’t think it’s that complicated,” he said. “We just haven’t seen widespread use of spring break for out-of-season practice. It just seems the wrong tone and it’s viewed by me and (others) as the wrong direction.”
But it’s not the first time the SEC has been irked by the Michigan coach. Harbaugh’s participation last spring in satellite camps – or “recruiting tours,” as Sankey has called them – prompted the SEC to partner with the ACC on proposed legislation that would prohibit coaches from participating in satellite camps. The SEC doesn’t allow coaches to work camps farther than 50 miles away from their campuses.
Although Michigan isn’t the only coaching staff participating (coaches from Big 12 and Pac-12 schools have done so, too), Michigan’s nine-camp, seven-state blitz, much of it deep in SEC territory, raised the hackles of SEC coaches. If the national legislation doesn’t succeed, Sankey has said the SEC would allow its coaches to participate in satellite camps, too.
“It’s a competitive endeavor,” Sankey said. “We’ve shown our strength. We focus on making sure we’re strong, yet we’ve got a commitment to properly lead intercollegiate athletics. As a result, we think it’s the wrong time to be using spring break as a spring football out-of-season practice opportunity.”
The NCAA does not prohibit teams from conducting spring practices away from campus. As an example, Ohio State’s 2013 spring game was played in Cincinnati. But an SEC rule prohibits its teams from conducting spring practices off-campus.
“That’s our decision,” Sankey said. “It’s not something for which we apologize, but we have not made (an attempt at) national legislation.”
Sankey said the spirit of the rule was that schools conducting practices off campus would remain within their state. He said he is concerned others might follow Michigan’s lead. He also noted to CBSSports.com that top football recruits attend IMG Academy, and that the school is “run by a business enterprise that has a lot of interests – but one of those is sports agents.”
But Sankey reiterated that the SEC’s greater concern was practicing during spring break.
“Rather than proliferate spring practice into spring break, we’ve got a governing system that’s supposed to be able to move more quickly,” Sankey said, explaining why the SEC has asked the oversight committee to stop the practice.
PROJECTING THE 2016 COLLEGE FOOTBALL TOP 25
