NCAA's Emmert On Harbaugh's Spring Break: 'An Appropriate Concern'
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh isn't exactly the most popular man in college football right now. His plan to take his team to Bradenton, Fla., for spring break (which would count as a week of spring practice) has come under intense scrutiny. The SEC commissioner, Greg Sankey, specifically called for the NCAA to block such trips from becoming common within college football.
And now, NCAA president Mark Emmert has said that concerns about a spring break trip are "appropriate," although a rule change to prohibit the trip likely wouldn't come before the team makes its way to Florida this year.
"We are trying to find ways to dial back the demands of student-athletes, not ramp them up," Emmert said Friday at a University of South Carolina board of trustees meeting, according to The State.
According to the newspaper, Emmert also said, "there's a difference between not being prohibited and being OK," hinting that a rules change could come in the future.
Emmert was speaking on the topic in response to former South Carolina football player (and current trustee) Chuck Allen asking about Michigan's spring break trip. Allen called the idea "misguided" and questioned whether student-athletes should be getting a breather from football during university-sanctioned breaks.
Harbaugh's plan, as it stands, is to take his entire football team to Florida during the University of Michigan's spring break, where they would practice at IMG Academy in Bradenton. When he first brought up the idea, Harbaugh said the trip would serve as a team-bonding activity, and that it would give players who otherwise couldn't afford a spring break trip a chance to travel.
Coincidentally or not, IMG Academy is also home to several top college football recruits for the class of 2017, including the No. 2 overall player according to 247Sports, athlete Dylan Moses. Of 247Sports' top 100 players in the class of 2017, four attend IMG Academy.
The whole situation has been laced with drama, with Harbaugh tweeting a cryptic (or not) message after Sankey came out strongly against the spring break plan.
Michigan's spring break is scheduled for Saturday, February 27 to Sunday, March 6.
