I applaud the NCAA for the decision to overturn the ban on satellite camps. It’s the right decision for student athletes. However, I do hope that the NCAA will further regulate the camps in some way. I would think that some common sense limitations can eventually be put in place that keeps them from getting out of hand.
While prospective student athletes benefit from the decision, the impact for Wake Forest football remains to be seen. Keep in mind that roughly 1/3 of Clawson’s commits have earned their offers based on camp performances, so camps are more critical to Wake Forest than other P5 schools. Here is how I see the risks and opportunities:
RISKS
I see the risks as two-fold. First, you would expect that it will become more difficult to get talent to come to your on-campus camps. Especially if they have to travel from places like Atlanta where they can attend satellite camps. Second, more schools will be able to get exposure to recruits within Wake’s “six-hour radius” recruiting territory. So there’s a risk that more kids in that territory will commit to schools further from home, which would further dilute the talent pool that Wake would be drawing from.
OPPORTUNITIES
I have said for a while that one of the staff’s real strengths is talent evaluation, including in-person talent evaluation. If played correctly, satellite camps could give the staff an ability to lay eyes on more recruits in more places, including recruits that previously would not have made the trip to Winston-Salem. That’s a huge opportunity for Wake.
SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
My understanding is that Wake will host at least one satellite camp. I think it will be a standalone Wake Forest camp. Other than that, I’m not sure what else Wake has in store.
Across the college football landscape, it seems like camps could evolve in three forms:
#1 – Single-school camps – I think these will be rare. The idea that say, Illinois, is going to set up camp in Atlanta and draw 200 quality prospects seems far-fetched. This alternative is high-cost, high-effort and will minimize turnout.
#2 – Multiple-school camps – I think this will be the go-to model. Lower-cost. Doesn’t require as much effort. I think it will be a necessity to draw a meaningful number of camp attendees. You may even have to co-host camps with schools that you would normally recruits against, but that may become a necessity. There are already indications that this model will be used this cycle. Georgia and Michigan are co-hosting a camp on June 5. FAU announced that they will be hosting coaching staffs from N.C. State, Kentucky and Arkansas at their camps. Samford announced that the Iowa coaching staff will be at a “mega-camp” in June 11 that will also include schools that you would have thought competed against one another for recruits (Troy, South Alabama, Memphis, Tulane, Southern Miss etc).
#3 - Private workouts – If taken to the extreme, these satellite camps could end up as a private workouts, where a school like Michigan would go to a city for what amounts to a private workout for small numbers of recruits (think 4-6).
My guess is that, absent additional NCAA rule-making, in 2-5 years you will see that camps have turned into something closer to regional combines (similar to the NFL combines) that are attended by large numbers of both coaches and recruits.
It should be fascinating to watch how college football adapts to this, but especially how Wake Forest reacts to this. I have a sense that our coaches have been planning for this possibility. It should be interesting to follow.
