From Nicky Satan to Todd Grantham to the conference itself and all points in between, James Franklin was far from the most popular of head coaches in the SEC. Even as Franklin has since moved on from Vanderbilt to Penn State, he’s sticking in the craw of his old conference’s coaching fraternity.
Earlier this month it was revealed that the Penn State coaching staff would serve as “guest coaches” during a Georgia State football camp in mid-June. They will do the same at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. By far the the biggest benefit to the Nittany Lions will be getting a chance to see up close and personal -- and recruit -- players who would likely never venture as far north as Happy Valley for visits and/or camps.
The NCAA has a bylaw that prevents football programs from setting up camps outside of its home state. Franklin & Company, however, are taking advantage of a touch of gray that allows them to serve as “guest coaches” at camps outside the state of Pennsylvania -- and forge a greater foothold in the talent-rich recruiting fields of the Deep South.
The SEC, on the other hand, has a rule that prohibits its coaches from guest coaching more than 50 miles from their campuses. The coaches in that conference now see themselves at a disadvantage to a master recruiter like Franklin and want the NCAA to close the loophole -- or for the SEC to lift its 50-mile radius stipulation.
“I wish it was a national rule,” Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze said. “I don’t particularly want another school in a BCS conference coming into our state and running a camp. So we would like to see our rule be a national rule. I’d love to see it be the same.”
Or, as Kentucky’s Mark Stoops put it, “I don’t want to speak for everybody in the room, but from what I heard in there is most of our coaches would be in favor of at least being on an even playing field.”
Commissioner Mike Slive acknowledged that his football coaches “see it as a loophole and asked us to see what we can do about that.”
Whether that involves pushing to make the SEC rule a national one or repealing the existing conference restriction, you can rest assured that, when it comes to football recruiting, the SEC will do everything and anything in its power to stay ahead of anyone else on that particular trail.