SEC Spring Meetings 2015: Conference Wants a 'Level Playing Field' For All College Football
ByWith a new era of college football in its early stages, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is looking to implement uniform rules for all the five "power conferences."
According to ESPN, conference officials announced at the SEC spring meetings Tuesday their plan to propose legislature limiting coaches' access to their recruiting grounds via satellite camps. The SEC is also considering changing their graduate transfer rules, as both items set them apart from the rest of the Power 5.
"If we're going to compete for the championship, and everybody's going to play in the playoff system and everybody's going to compete for that, then we need to get our rules in alignment so we're all on a level playing field," Alabama head football coach Nick Saban said at the meetings in Destin, Fla.
The SEC has long been considered the best of the Power 5 due to a string of seven consecutive National Championship appearances and arguably housing the best area in the nation for high school recruiting. But now, the College Football Playoff is in place and the Power 5 conferences will soon have more leeway in their own governance.
In that light, ESPN reported, the SEC wants the same rules for all.
Coaches outside the SEC have made their way into some of the country's top recruiting areas via satellite camps, where they evade NCAA sanctions by showing up as "guest coaches." The SEC does not allow its coaches to do the same.
"We want it to be done nationally, but there was a lot of conversation among our football coaches that we don't want to be on the sidelines any longer if there's not going to be a change more rapidly," incoming SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said at the meetings. "If that's going to be the competitive landscape, they want to be fully engaged if the rule doesn't change nationally."