Even though the SEC, along with the ACC, proposed legislation to have satellite camps eliminated nationally, the conference is coming around. Both conference leaders assume their legislation will be laughed off and they are correct. So rather than try to fight it, in the summer of 2016 the SEC will join in the satellite fun.

Their argument was simple. These camps, usually held by smaller institutions, allow coaches from larger programs to “guest coach” at these camps.

Is there some guest coaching going on? Absolutely.

Is the idea of satellite camps a total, unapologetic recruiting play for programs outside of the major recruiting territories to gain a footprint in those fertile areas? No doubt about it.

Should the SEC and ACC (ACC Commissioner John Swofford is such a lapdog to the SEC’s needs and wants, he’s like the conference’s own personal golden retriever) go along with the flow? Yes. A thousand times, yes.

There are a few reasons the SEC should embrace satellite camps.

No one feels sorry for you

The SEC has won so much in the past decade that it has lost all levels of sympathy for anything relating to college football. The SEC has won so much that any changes it proposes automatically makes people wonder: “Is this good for the game or good for the SEC?”

The conference has a reputation of winning big and being selfish so when the coaches all towed the company line about being against satellite camps it sounded like a disingenuous power play.

It didn’t work. And it shouldn’t have worked.

The fact is some programs like Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Tennessee — programs that can’t fill their classes with in-state recruits alone — should be for it. Kentucky is already at a geographical disadvantage compared to say, LSU, when it comes to access to top recruits. Why should Mark Stoops want to limit his program’s outreach?

The SEC can benefit from these camps, too

Even if the conference decided not to run satellite camps in the states of other conference members there are still plenty of options. New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio are all areas with plenty of talented football players.

If Urban Meyer can do a satellite camp with Florida Atlantic, why should the SEC ban Hugh Freeze from doing one with Ohio University?

All the conference schools should go to California, frankly.

If Vanderbilt really wants to be the Stanford of the SEC and have a similar level of success it needs to have the capabilities to cast a wide net when searching for prospects.

The first area the conference should target is the Maryland-D.C.-Virginia beltway, which has seen a major upward trend in football talent.

It’s good for the recruits

Satellite camps are great for recruits who can’t afford to travel the nation to see every campus during the summer. There’s a talented football player in the northeast who loves SEC football but doesn’t have the financial resources to spend a week in the summer attending camps. Instead of trying to figure out how to find the money to go to Auburn in July, it’s much easier financially on the recruit to attend the Toledo camp that Gus Malzahn and Auburn’s staff are “guest coaches.”

The bottom line is satellite camps are here to stay.

They are good for programs looking to extend their recruiting base. They are good for recruits who want to have exposure to programs outside their area. They can be good for the SEC if it chooses to participate — even if they stay out of their own region.

If nothing else they can put coaches like Meyer and Jim Harbaugh on the defensive for a change.