U.S. Dept. of Justice looking at satellite camps

12:51 PM ET

College football coaches and prospective-student athletes upset with the NCAA’s recent decision to ban satellite football camps might have a new ally in their fight to get the ruling reversed.

According to a report by USA Today, the United States Department of Justice has begun an informal inquiry into the topic of satellite camps, a term used to describe clinics recruits attend at facilities that are not on FBS programs’ campuses. The report says the DOJ has already reached out to college football coaches, conference commissioners and college administrators with the focus of the inquiry on how not having satellite camps diminish access to coaches and scholarship opportunities.

The Department of Justice has not responded to ESPN.com’s questions about the investigation.

On April 8, the NCAA shut down satellite camps, effective immediately, with a ruling by the Division I Council that required FBS programs to conduct all clinics at school facilities or facilities regularly used for practice or competition. The Council’s vote is scheduled to go to the NCAA’s Board of Directors for ratification on Thursday.

Satellite camps have been a hot-button issue in the recruiting world for the past five years and Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 teams have conducted them all over the country, but they reached national awareness after Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh conducted an eight-day “Summer Swarm” tour in 2015 that took the Wolverines’ deep into SEC recruiting territory. The ACC and SEC forbid its schools from conducting …

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