IRVING, Texas -- The Big Ten has been a trendsetter behind the controversial "satellite camps" that have been popping up throughout the country, and commissioner Jim Delany said Wednesday he's willing to have a national discussion about it -- as long as the entire subject of recruiting is the focus, not just the camps.
"I don't view it as a satellite camp," Delany said at the College Football Playoff spring meetings. "I view it as permissible practice. It's permissible. I don't think it's objectionable. I've never thought about it as objectionable. I think there are some things that are out there that are practices or that are legal that are probably far more objectionable than this."
"All of these things are interrelated," he said. "Access to players, early access to players, early signing date, over-signing, flipping -- this is all part and parcel of a very difficult area to regulate. What I would object to is identifying any single practice in an isolated way and focusing on that. What I would be open to is an on-the-bus overall view of recruitment, whether it's in basketball or football, to make sure there's balance on access."
NCAA bylaws state that football programs must host camps on campus, inside their state or within a 50-mile radius of campus. A loophole allows coaches to "guest coach" or work another school's camp in order to circumvent the 50-mile radius.
Michigan sent out a press release April 14 touting nine summer football camps across the country, including stops in Florida, Alabama, Texas and California. Penn State coach James Franklin and his staff sparked the debate last year when they participated in camps at Stetson and Georgia State.
"It's a national scene, it's not a regional scene," Delany said. "We recruit in the Midwest, we recruit nationally in the West Coast, we recruit in the Southeast. We always have and we always will. Our schools have been recruiting the South for 100 years and we're not going to stop recruiting the South."
The Big 12 and Big Ten allow their programs to guest coach. SEC and ACC bylaws prevent their coaches from doing the same.
"Of course, I grew up around five-star camp, where coaches came to coach players," Delany said. "I know there are things that are out there that are very OK like over-signing or grayshirting or flipping players. Those are all things that I think people object to, but they're permissible. But I think coaches coaching at camps doesn't strike me as a bad practice."
ACC commissioner John Swofford had a different take on it.
Swofford told ESPN.com last week that the conference will support a national rule prohibiting football programs from hosting satellite camps. He also said if the NCAA doesn't regulate it, then the ACC will be forced to consider hosting similar camps across the country.
"Right now we intend to keep our conference agreement [with the SEC] as is and push for a national rule that prohibits it," Swofford said. "We just don't feel like it's a healthy part of the recruiting process in college football.
"We may have to ultimately reconsider it if the rules continue to allow it, because we're not going to put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage in recruiting if we were to feel like we were disadvantaged, but our primary purpose right now is to try to gain support for a national rule that prohibits it."