Jim Harbaugh fires back at Nick Saban for satellite camp 'lecturing'

— -- Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh fired back at Nick Saban's "lecturing"  in a tweet Tuesday night after the Alabama coach called satellite camps "bad for college football" and compared them to "the wild, wild West" during Tuesday's SEC spring meetings. 

After initially saying he would not discuss satellite camps, Saban went off in a five-minute rant during which he blasted the practice for incorporating third parties into recruiting, as well as the lack of guidelines.

"This is the wild, wild West at its best," he said. "There have been no specific guidelines relative to how we're managing control of this stuff. It's happening outside the normal evaluation window, which means we're taking time away from our players. We have to worry about our players doing the right things with the limited time we have them, but we're not going to do that because we have to be somewhere else to see someone else."

Saban, who has never been a fan of satellite camps, characterizing them as "ridiculous," went on to say it was "amazing to [him] somebody didn't stand up and say here are going to be the unintended consequences of what you all are doing."

Harbaugh, who has embraced satellite camps like no other coach, took exception to Saban's comments and responded on Twitter with an apparent jab referencing the Alabama assistant who recently resigned after alleged recruiting violations.

The SEC had banned its coaches from participating in satellite camps, and the NCAA followed with a satellite-camp ban. However, in April the NCAA overturned the ban and ruled that satellite camps would be allowed.

Saban said at Tuesday's meetings that Harbaugh "can do whatever he wants to do if he thinks that's what's best," but that there "needs to be somebody who looks out for what's best for the game, not the SEC or the Big Ten or Jim Harbaugh. But what's best for the game of college football."

Information from ESPN's Brett McMurphy and Dan Murphy was used in this report.