New Rules Keep Mizzou Football Camps Away From De Smet Jesuit

One of the byproducts of the University of Missouri move to the Southeastern Conference is having an impact on Creve Coeur.

In recent years, De Smet Jesuit High School hosted Mizzou football's annual one day camps, where high school players from around the St. Louis area and around the midwest. The camps are key recruiting tools, drawing in hundreds of prospects at once who get run through the paces and get evaluated in a hands-on way. The camps also gave the athletes a chance to get exposure to smaller schools who's coaches would attend.

Under SEC rules, those camps cannot be held off-campus, meaning recruits have to pony up more time and resources of their own to make the trip to Columbia. MU hosted one camp Tuesday and has another scheduled for Sunday.

The conference is believed to be the only one to restrict camps to campus. What makes matters worse, MU Head Football Coach Gary Pinkel told the website PowerMizzou, is that Big 12 schools, who can host their own camps where they choose,  are going a step further. 

"There's a lot of universities in the Big 12 that go to small colleges in Texas and really the small college runs the camp but they have their entire staff there and they're recruiting and evaluating basically," Pinkel told the website. "That's what's happening. Obviously that's a huge advantage."