One year ago Mike Gundy and his coaching staff at Oklahoma State looked around and recognized a changing landscape. Team satellite camps had become commonplace, making it harder and harder to convince prospects to pick camps that featured the Cowboys, resulting in a less-fruitful experience for everyone involved.

“We felt like we needed to do something different,” Gundy said.

And so ...

“We came up with the ‘Wal-Mart theory,’ where you can go to one building and get everything you need,” he said. “So we started recruiting other schools."

This week that vision has come to fruition with Oklahoma State among several teams working “mega camps” across the state of Texas. The camps, run by the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, are expected to feature coaches from several Power 5 and non-Power 5 schools, including Kansas State, Missouri, Ole Miss, Arizona State, Oregon State, Northwestern, Boise State. The carousel kicked off with 427 campers in Belton on Thursday evening, with a pair of camps scheduled for Friday morning in San Antonio and evening in Katy. The five-camp swing concludes on Saturday in Tyler (morning) and Dallas (evening).

@CoachFredenburg addressing the first session of @crufootball Mega Camp 2016 at Crusader Stadium @UnderArmour pic.twitter.com/4W1yfdLJly

— CruEquipment (@CruEquipment) June 2, 2016

Satellite camps have been a hot-button topic, sparking complaints from Alabama’s Nick Saban and responding barbs from Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh this week alone. Some coaches are passionate about it being an opportunity for prospects and programs alike, while others are disappointed with potential loopholes and shady dealings as mega camps evolve.

“These have been so misconstrued,” Gundy said last month. “It is for us but it is [also] for the student athletes in Texas who can’t get far away from home for whatever reason. They may have a job, they may not have the financial means to do it or they may not have a vehicle or the time.

“It’s a 75 percent win for the student athlete, 25 percent win for the schools to get an opportunity to develop a relationship with those kids.”

Gundy's hope is to provide the chance for a college football hopeful to pay $40 and be seen (and coached) by coaches from schools on many different levels, from the SEC, Big 12 or Pac-12 to non-Power 5 schools and lower divisions. In other words, instead of incurring travel costs and paying registration fees to attend the individual schools' camps, the prospect can spend $40 and get evaluated by 20-plus schools in a mega camp.

“It’s really a combine, is what it’s turned into,” Gundy said. “Why not have them anyway? You’re seeing them from apparel companies. You should really have two or three of them in the Houston area, Dallas area, Central Texas, East Texas and everywhere else in the country, and coaches can come. You can’t recruit them anyway. That is what’s going to happen in the future anyway, in my opinion.”

Rules prohibit recruiting at the camp, yet there is plenty of value as coaches get the opportunity to not only evaluate a player's physical gifts (speed and strength), but also evaluate some of the attributes that can be the difference between a player reaching his potential or falling by the wayside. How does he respond to coaching? How does he respond to getting beat during a rep? Can he apply what he’s learning on the fly?

“You can’t recruit, so you have to be able to expose your school, yourself, your ability to coach and develop relationships to get to know the young men, watch them and get to see their work habits,” he said. “It’s just like I tell my kids, every time you run on the field, someone is getting an opinion of you. You’re lazy or you’re a hustler. Period. We’re getting to know them, and they’re getting to know us.”

And for the player, he can learn just as much about a coach at a school he’s considering. Does he have chemistry with a particular coach? Does their coaching style fit what the player is looking for? These are all questions that can be answered at a mega camp as players compare coaches and their styles while also getting a glimpse at where they may stand on a program’s priority list.

Mega camps appear to be here to stay, with several being held across the country throughout the summer. And while Gundy did express a reservation about taking away valuable family time from his coaches, he considers the camps indispensable.

“The risk/reward investment is worth it,” Gundy said. “There is no question that the travel camps we started 12 years ago have made a huge impact in our ability to win games. I don’t think we would have been able to do it without them. It’s been a huge part of the success we’ve had the past 10 years.”