NCAA votes to outlaw Michigan-style spring break trips

Jim Harbaugh will have the chance to get creative again after the NCAA voted to outlaw spring break trips like the one his Michigan Wolverines took last year.

From ESPN’s Mitch Sherman:

NCAA leadership took steps this week at the association's annual convention to close the loophole that allowed Harbaugh to escort Michigan football players off campus for four practices over spring break last March at IMG Academy, a Florida recruiting hotspot.

The Division I Council on Wednesday asked the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) to review and report its recommendation on the issue of staging practice sessions away from campus during a break from school.

Harbaugh and Michigan visited IMG Academy in Florida last spring, a school overflowing with Division I football talent. It sparked a controversy that drove conversation all offseason, and has apparently now led to the end of the practice.

Brady Bramlett, co-chair of SAAC, sums it up this way in the ESPN piece: "We're very adamant that, in your non-championship season, if you have a vacation period, it should really be a vacation period.”

The balance between student and athlete life is a big topic for the NCAA this year. However, any legislation designed to end spring break trips won’t go into effect until late summer at the earliest, so spring break 2017 could still be a go.

Rest assured Harbaugh will come up with something interesting.