Jim Harbaugh really doesn’t care what people think, he just wants to beat SEC recruiting in one of their own backyards.
You may not like Jim Harbaugh but the man is an innovator. He takes the archaic rules of the NCAA and the Power 5 at laughs at them. Harbaugh finds way to circumvent the inherent disadvantages of trying to recruit southern kids to a northern school and take advantage of opportunities other coaches have missed.
Last summer the Michigan Wolverines put their coaches in 7 different states at 10 different camps to work and, let’s be honest, recruit like crazy as a part of what Michigan called their “Summer Swarm.” It helps that Michigan has such a large athletic budget, as the trip cost over $200,000. It was well worth it, though, as 14 of Michigan’s current commits received offers during the tour. Talk about SEC recruiting being upset, as much of the tour was in the southeast.
Harbaugh is out to ruffle even more SEC recruiting feathers this year, though. He wants to host part of Michigan’s spring practices in Florida at IMG Academy. You can read the sunshine version of the story from the Detroit Free Press here. They talk about how it makes sense to take their players to a warm area, the fact that IMG has dorms and a common dining area and the how that it would likely be during a quiet period in recruiting.
Blah blah blah. We all know what this is about.
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This is about SEC recruiting getting served in one of their own backyards. While IMG Academy sends their players all over the country, they are not the only school of its kind. Harbaugh wants to get a bigger footprint in the state of Florida, home to some of the most elite recruits in the entire country.
Neither the “Summer Swarm” or Harbaugh’s potential spring practices in Florida are a violation of NCAA rules. They would break SEC and ACC rules however, giving Harbaugh an advantage of ACC and SEC recruiting. SEC coaches cannot host satellite camps outside a certain radius of their program. No such limit applies to Big 10 coaches.
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I’m not mad at Harbaugh for trying to recruit at an elite level and finding creative ways to do it. The SEC and ACC better step their games up, though. All the Power 5 schools need to play by the same rules or Harbaugh could make SEC recruiting dominance a thing of the past.