Today’s edition includes discussion about the loss of satellite camps, why the outcry might be a bit over the top and the first release of rankings for the 2018 recruiting class

The public outrage regarding the NCAA’s decision to immediately halt satellite camps has been growing since Friday's announcement. The ruling bans football camps guest hosted by coaches from major football programs farther than 50 miles from their campus, a practice most notably used by Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh last summer.

And on Friday I stated that this ruling hurts a school like Nebraska, with a remote recruiting territory, more than it does Michigan, which was clearly the target of the ire of SEC coaches.

And yes it hurts student-athletes, but maybe not to the extent people think.

Some might say Harbaugh took things too far, especially Harbaugh haters, by spending more than $200,000 on his eight-day, seven-state Summer Swarm tour last year and that his flashy style and self-promotion is what really brought unnecessary attention to the camps from new-found enemies in the Southeast, but that’s simply not true.

Harbaugh did exactly what he should do as the head coach at Michigan – he drew attention to his program from recruits and coaches across the country.

However, there are those that love to simplify things and say this is the SEC hating on Harbaugh and forcing the NCAA to shut him down. That’s also not the case.

Of course he ruffled some feathers, of course he made a huge deal out of something that isn’t that big a deal and, as usual, he put a target on his back. And the SEC (and the ACC, which also banned its coaches from the practice) led the charge to change the rules. When a vote was taken, the Division I Council decided to side with the SEC and the ACC. The Pac-12, Big 12 and several Group of Five conferences joined the SEC and ACC in voting against the camps.

But there is a solution to remedy some of the issues caused by the camp ban, and it is a simple one: Allow college coaches back at camps to evaluate talent during the spring like the old days. I remember, it must have been a decade or so ago, heading out to camps and seeing swarms of college coaches on hand evaluating talent.

And I remember many student-athletes, the same kind of student-athletes being harmed by Friday’s decision who can’t afford to travel across the country to camps in Ann Arbor or Lincoln or Columbus, gaining interest from colleges by competing close to home.

It won’t be the same as being instructed by the college coaches or working with them in a camp setting, but at least it’s something. The satellite camps aren’t coming back, unless there is another rule change, but a return to mass evaluations by college coaches like the good old days could make up for it a little bit.

While losing satellite camps is certainly a bad thing for student-athletes, let’s keep a few things in perspective here before the outcry gets too out of hand.

First, satellite camps have only been around for a few years, started by James Franklin when he arrived at Penn State. It’s not like these camps have been something recruits have relied upon for 20 years and are just now losing.

And secondly, it’s not like these camps are free. Summer camps, satellite or local, have long been a money-maker for colleges every June or July as kids with zero shot of an FBS scholarship pony up money to perhaps shock the staff with his skills or more likely try to impress one of the many smaller-school coaches that are helping to work the camp.

The more kids willing to pay, the better.

Jim Harbaugh, James Franklin, Urban Meyer and others were not at satellite camps to help the poor, under-recruited kid who couldn’t afford a trip out of his region. They were there to increase their brand awareness in regions they want to recruit harder, coach up (i.e. recruit on the field) some of their top targets in that area and if they found a sleeper, all the better.

There are some that see Harbaugh and others as Robin Hood, but that’s simply not the case. Franklin was smart enough to find a loophole in the NCAA language and Harbaugh, as he does, took it six levels beyond.

But for all the outcry about how this hurts the student-athlete who can’t afford to travel and wants to get more national eyeballs on him while staying local, there is still the price of admission and the fact that you have to be very, very rare to earn the attention of the big dogs at a one-day camp if you’re not already on their radar.

Rivals.com will release our first rankings for the class of 2018 on Tuesday, but we start much slower than some of our competition.

We will release 100 players with stars and Rivals Ratings (RR), but we will not have a numerical list as players will be alpha ordered based on their RR.

While some recruiting services have full positional rankings and are slapping stars on hundreds of kids who only have freshman and sophomore film, we will go a bit slower.

The 2018 rankings will have five five-star prospects and 24 prospects in that early five-star range, but we will wait until July to release a full numerical Rivals250 after we’ve been through an entire spring and most of the summer.

The class of 2018 rankings are essentially sophomore rankings, and you can bet freshman and even eighth-grade rankings are coming to this industry soon, something I abhor but will become attractive to some in the industry as more and more colleges offer eighth- and ninth-graders.

Enjoy our list Tuesday because it’s the most thought out and mindful ranking list of the class of 2018 out there.