Jim Harbaugh’s whirlwind satellite camp tour has not gone off without a hitch, as the Michigan head coach has been hounded by the NCAA throughout the process.
As part of his routine during these camps, Harbaugh had been taking a picture and signing autographs for every player who attended. Until, that is, the NCAA made up a rule prohibiting him from doing it. He was actually informed of the rule in the middle of a session.
To our utter shock and dismay (sarcasm alert!), Harbaugh wasn’t pleased with the NCAA’s decision.
Jim: "NCAA made a rule yesterday that we're not allowed to take pictures w/ you guys at camps. They're making them up as they go along."
— Jake Lourim (@jakelourim) June 6, 2016
Another case in which the NCAA changed the rules on the fly occurred when, suddenly, Harbaugh and his team were informed that they could no longer conduct interviews at these camps.
“I believe we can do interviews,” Harbaugh said, per Heather Dinich of ESPN.com. “That’s what we’ve been told. You were there, you saw what’s going on with the changing daily rules. It’s very interesting. It’s very interesting. The NCAA compliance people are here. They’ve been at every single one. The NCAA has sent at least one or two of their people to each of our camps and we’ve had one of our compliance people at each one of these camps. That notion that there’s not oversight of these camps — you’ve seen it with your own eyes, there absolutely is.”
He also talked about how football is getting more attention regarding compliance issues than any other college sport, and he compared it to the “white sport, rising, affluent sport” of lacrosse.
Harbaugh has certainly been a lightning rod for controversy since his arrival at Michigan last year. And he’s not backing down an inch.
“It bothers us, but if it’s a test of wills, we’re going to fight for the youngsters and the student-athletes and their families and for the game of football itself.”
Rather than diminish his popularity, Harbaugh’s tactics appear to be pushing him further into the spotlight in a positive way as it relates to recruiting. Michigan hauled in the No. 5-ranked 2016 recruiting class, per 247 Sports, and his satellite camps are wildly popular.
Other coaches don’t like all this attention-grabbing, and the NCAA is clearly doing what it can to keep him in a box. But knowing Harbaugh, who loves a challenge, he’s going to continue being a thorn in their sides, grinning like a school boy who got away with stealing a cookie out of the cookie jar the entire way.