Michigan AD defends cost of Harbaugh satellite camp tour
Michigan’s lengthy satellite camp tour won’t come cheap.
According to MLive.com, Wolverines athletic director Warde Manuel confirmed Thursday that the program’s camp schedule – which spans 38 appearances in 22 states, plus an international trip – should run a bill of approximately $350,000.
“It will come in somewhere around there,” Manuel said.
Manuel has no qualms about Jim Harbaugh’s audacious approach to the camp circuit, either.
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From MLive.com:
According to Manuel, a budget for the camps was discussed prior to the tour. In the end, he sees it as "an investment that we're making in our program and football, and the things that (Harbaugh) is doing with the kids and that our coaches are doing across the country."
Since beginning on May 31, Michigan's camp tour -- featuring Harbaugh and/or members of his staff visiting schools and running camps -- has gone from Illinois to Indiana to Ohio to Georgia to Florida to Australia, back to Florida, to Connecticut to Pennsylvania to Maryland to Alabama to New Jersey to Mississippi to Oho, back to New Jersey, back to Ohio, to California to Texas to Tennessee to Kansas to Missouri to South Carolina and to Utah.
As mentioned above, Harbaugh and his staff have been all over the place coaching at camps. The travel from camp to camp via the use of private planes, Manuel said, contributed to much of the cost.
Satellite camps were briefly banned by the NCAA Division I Council this offseason, but the Division I Board of Directors quickly rescinded that ruling and called for further discussion. Once the ruling was rescinded, announcements of previously-planned Michigan appearances were popping up left and right.
The tour – and satellite camps in general – hasn’t come without criticism. Manuel was quick to defend it.
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"(Harbaugh is) investing so much of his time and so much of his staff's time," he said. "I fight every time I'm asked about it – this idea that it's just about recruiting and it's just about Jim. He doesn't need that, if it was just about him. And we don't need that to know who we're going to recruit. That, I think, is an important piece to talk about as it relates to the expenditure and the investment that we're making."
Harbaugh often says he uses the camps as a way to promote the game. Manuel, a former Michigan offensive lineman (and teammate of Harbaugh) supported that sentiment.
"In my mind, I'm willing to invest because Michigan has been in the role of really supporting and promoting what we think is the right thing to do," Manuel said. "He's out there teaching the game the right way. He's out there promoting the game of football, which is important to me, to him and to Michigan. For us, it is an investment that is worth it."
Michigan still has appearances scheduled in Nevada, California, Hawaii and American Samoa before wrapping up the tour and shifting the focus toward preseason camp.
For more Michigan news, visit TheWolverine.com.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
