The NCAA Division I Board of Directors scrapped a proposed ban on satellite camps Thursday, rebuffing a request from powerhouse conferences in the South and clearing the way for coaches to hold and work at clinics far from their campuses this summer.
The decision won’t end the debate that centered on whether the camps are just another recruiting tool: The board also asked the Division I Council to conduct a broad assessment of the entire college football recruiting model in coming months, and that could bring modifications to how the camps are run and who can take part.
The council three weeks ago approved a ban prohibiting Bowl Subdivision coaches from holding or working at camps and clinics away from their schools. The camps had drawn a high profile after Jim Harbaugh and his Michigan staff held camps in the South last summer and he was among the first to praise the board’s decision.
“Good news,” Harbaugh said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “It’s good for prospective student-athletes, fans, coaches and competition.”
The Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference sponsored the proposal that created the ban, but there was an outcry from coaches who contend satellite camps provide opportunities for un-recruited athletes to be noticed by high-profile coaches and possibly receive scholarships.
Opponents of the camps say they are simply recruiting events held outside the official recruiting calendar and the sight of a Big Ten coach like Harbaugh drawing attention in SEC country with his Florida camps helped put the issue on the front burner for the NCAA.
New Orleans
Cardell Hayes was also indicted on a charge of attempted second-degree murder because police say he wounded Smith’s wife in the shooting. Hayes and Smith got into an argument after Hayes’s Hummer hit Smith’s Mercedes SUV from behind on April 9, police said. Smith’s wife was in the passenger seat at the time.
Hayes’ defense lawyer, John Fuller, has said Hayes was not the aggressor and that a witness saw a gun in Smith’s possession. Police say a loaded gun was found in Smith’s vehicle.
A lawyer for Smith’s family, Peter Thomson, insists Smith never brandished or carried it. Thomson has described Hayes as “enraged” during the altercation and portrayed his clients as the victims.
Smith was shot seven times in the back and once along his side, the coroner said. His wife, Racquel, was shot twice in the legs but survived.
Oklahoma City
Carter County filed documents Thursday saying the 26-year-old will be sentenced on June 8.
Authorities arrested the former Oklahoma State standout in December after an officer said he smelled alcohol in Blackmon’s vehicle. The report says Blackmon failed a field sobriety test and refused a breath test.
Moscow, Idaho
Idaho first made the jump to the FBS in 1996 along with fellow in-state member Boise State. But the Vandals struggled at the higher level with finding a stable conference that made sense geographically and the increased expenditures. The Vandals are a combined 71-162 in their 20 seasons playing at the FBS level and have only twice reached a bowl game.
Dallas
Wife Joyce Sherrod told The Dallas Morning News her husband died Thursday afternoon after a week in hospice care.
Sherrod was Texas Sportswriter of the Year a record 16 times and a Red Smith Award winner for lifetime achievement in sports writing.
After World War II service as a Navy tail gunner, Sherrod was sports editor at the now-defunct Fort Worth Press, where he cultivated the nascent talents of authors Dan Jenkins and Edwin “Bud” Shrake. He took his popular column to the now-defunct Dallas Times-Herald in 1958 and The Dallas Morning News in 1985 before retiring in 2003.
Indianapolis
Adam Henze, of Bloomington, beat out more than 200 others who submitted Indy 500-themed poems for the contest, co-sponsored by Indiana Humanities.
The competition revives an Indy 500 tradition from the 1920s, when an official poem was included in the race day program.
Henze is an educator and a doctoral candidate at IU. He receives a $1,000 cash prize and two tickets to the 100th running of the race on May 29.
Avondale, La.
The 33-year-old Stuard had only 21 putts in his bogey-free round at TPC Louisiana, finishing his final hole after a rain delay of nearly five hours. He’s winless on the PGA Tour.
Top-ranked Jason Day bogeyed his final two holes for a 69. The Australian is the first No. 1 player to play in the event since David Duval in 1999.
At Irving, Texas, Mi Jung Hur topped the South Korean-dominated leaderboard in the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout, opening with a 5-under 66 in breezy conditions.
Los Angeles
Silna’s younger brother and former Spirits of St. Louis co-owner Daniel Silna confirmed his brother’s death to The Associated Press on Thursday. Ozzie Silna died at a Los Angeles hospital Tuesday after a brief illness.
The deal the brothers made with the NBA for their team in 1976 is commonly called the greatest in sports history.
The Spirits were not one of the four ABA teams selected to enter the NBA, so the Silna brothers negotiated a deal to receive four-sevenths of one share of the NBA’s annual TV revenue for as long as the NBA was around.
That meant hundreds of thousands of dollars at the time, and hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 40 years.