Regions Tradition Pro-Am

Alabama head football coach Nick Saban on the first tee. The Regions Tradition NCR Pro-Am day held at Shoal Creek Country Club in Hoover, Alabama Wednesday May 13, 2015. (Frank Couch\fcouch@al.com)

A couple SEC coaches admit that their stance on satellite camps may be a bit selfish.

But if the league's national proposal to ban the camps does not pass, many of the same coaches who have spent the last year complaining about them will be on the road next summer.

The SEC's athletic directors voted to drop its restriction against satellite camps on Wednesday during the league's annual spring meetings in Destin, Florida.

The conference's proposal will mirror its current rule, which bans SEC coaches from working as a "guest" at any camp that is more than 50 miles away from their institution. The Atlantic Coast Conference is the only other league that currently does not allow its coaches to take part in satellite camps.

Meanwhile, a growing number of coaches from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 are taking part in the "recruiting tours" - as outgoing SEC commissioner Mike Slive and his predecessor Greg Sankey refer to them.

"In the areas we recruit, we typically get all those kids from those areas to campus if they're really serious," said Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze. "I guess it's a selfish position somewhat. I kind of like it the way it is for us."

With Texas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama - some of the country's most fertile recruiting grounds - among the states within the SEC's footprint, the league's coaches have spent the last year expressing their frustration with other Power Five programs setting up high school football camps in their backyard.

Two years ago, Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin was the first SEC coach to bring the camps to the attention of the league.

"They were primarily coming to Texas," Sumlin explained. "Now, they're coming all over the place and it's affecting more people."

With the summer months being a "quiet period" for recruiting, a number of SEC coaches still question why satellite camps have been allowed in the first place.

"We have a lot of crazy rules," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "A head coach is not allowed to go out during an evaluation period in the spring. But you can go have a satellite camp anywhere in the country to bring your staff in and bring players to it? Does that make any sense to anybody?

"I think we should have recruiting periods and evaluation periods, and the only time that you should be able to have a camp is on your campus. If a player's interested enough to come to your camp on your campus, then that should be the way it is."

Added Georgia coach Mark Richt: "I don't want to wear our assistant coaches out any more. I think there needs to be some sanity to our lives and to our schedules.

"But if we're allowed to do it, we'll figure out a way to manage it."

Slive said the SEC will "make every effort" to have its current rule on satellite camps adopted nationally.

For the proposed ban to pass nationally it would require a majority vote from the 10 conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Power Five leagues - like the SEC, ACC, Pac-12, Big Ten and Big 12 - each have weighted votes that count double.

But should the camps continue, many SEC coaches say their "recruiting tours" would be a lot closer to home than many of the cross-country satellite camps that have popped up in their states the last couple of years.

"We'll certainly go to - some spots," said LSU coach Les Miles, when asked where he might consider setting up camp. "I don't want to make anybody mad."