The SEC is Trying to Block Michigan Football from Spring Practices in Florida

Tell me if you've heard this one before:

The Southeastern Conference has taken issue with something that Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines want to do.

This time, it comes in the form of the conference trying to block the program from having a portion of its spring football practices in Florida at IMG Academy.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told CBS Sports on Tuesday that the conference has asked the NCAA to prevent teams from holding practices over spring break, according to Dennis Dodd.

“Our primary reaction [is] that, in the face of the time-demand conversations, we've got one program taking what has been 'free time' away,” Sankey said. “Let's draw a line and say, ‘That's not appropriate.'"

...

“This seems completely counter to the dialogue,” Sankey said. “We have work to do on [giving athletes a] day off. We have work to do on, how do you provide a postseason break? It seems where this is one where reasonable people could say we just shouldn't be in this space.”

Student athletes in general are allowed four free weeks out of the year where they are not accountable to the program. Spring break falls into that category.

This is another move from the SEC that reeks of trying to keep Harbaugh out of their territory. Several coaches and members of the conference leadership are firmly against the idea of satellite camps, too, which Michigan conducted last summer.

IMG is home to some of the premier talent in the 2017 football recruiting class and beyond, as well. Many of those players will draw interest from SEC schools, so it is easy to draw the line here and see what the conference is really concerned about.

There currently is no rule in place that would prevent Michigan Football from heading to Florida, but now that they have laid out their plans, it appears that the SEC and other conferences will likely try to shut it down in the future.