DESTIN, Fla.-- James Franklin is heading back to SEC country this summer, and that isn’t sitting well with the conference’s coaches.

Penn State’s new coach and his staff are making their way back to familiar territory -- and fertile recruiting grounds -- by working at football camps at Georgia State University in Atlanta and Stetson University in Deland, Florida.

Now, there’s a reason SEC coaches aren’t happy: They can’t do the same thing because SEC rules say conference coaches can’t guest coach more than 50 miles from their campuses. However, schools outside the SEC have every right to guest coach at what are essentially “satellite camps.”

What SEC coaches want is for commissioner Mike Slive, one of the most power men in college athletics, to help put an end to this.

“I want you to know that it’s not the right thing,” LSU coach Les Miles said.

But maybe the SEC should consider conforming. This is something the NCAA allows, and it’s a great way for bigger schools to enlarge their recruiting footprint. It almost makes too much sense, and changing the rules could be a good thing for the SEC. You're telling me the SEC wouldn't take another opportunity to expand its brand?

Give Will Muschamp or Nick Saban the opportunity to work with a slew of prospects in Atlanta. Send Mark Richt and Kevin Sumlin to Southern California to help coach recruits.

That’s not appealing?

Here’s a snippet from ESPN College Football Insider Brett McMurphy’s story on how this works:

Seven years ago, the NCAA passed Rule 13.12.1.2, limiting where football programs can run high school camps -- basically any out-of-state location that sits more than 50 miles from campus. However, a loophole allows coaching staffs to work at -- but not hold -- other camps outside the 50-mile radius.

I know the SEC doesn’t want to open the flood gates for the rest of the country to sink its teeth into the SEC’s recruiting ground, but why not push away from your own, seemingly outdated rule and take advantage yourself? Why not push for repeal and see if you can reap your own benefits?

“We all would if we could,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “We’re all going to do what you’d let us. Our point is where does it end? I don’t want to speak for everyone in the room, but from what I heard in there, most of our coaches would be in favor of at least being on an even playing field. We’d prefer to tighten up that loophole to not allow you to do camps off your campus.”

And that loophole is upsetting SEC coaches, who want to either have a nationwide rule that bans guest coaching by Power Five staffs or for the league to change its own rule and join the fun.

“It would be beneficial for everybody, if everybody could do that, or nobody should do it,” Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said. “There shouldn’t be any loopholes or anything else like that. The intent of the rule was to keep an institution’s camp on the institution’s campus, and now that’s not the case.”

I understand where the SEC is coming from. The coaches, who have the geographical advantage of calling such a recruiting hotbed home, want to keep outsiders away from their product. They want to limit the contact between the other Power Five players as much as possible.

This is their land -- or as Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork puts it, their “home turf” -- and they don’t want people trespassing with camps that will introduce them to a plethora of athletes.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s nothing stopping other Power Five institutions from taking this further. The Big Ten has discussed whether this should continue within the conference -- Iowa's coaches are heading to Chicago to work at Lake Forest College this summer -- but where’s the incentive to stop? Just working at these camps broadcasts your product to a large group of prospects (that you really want to impress) in a relatively foreign area.

Slive has made an effort to keep the SEC ahead of the curve, and this is another chance for the SEC to evolve for the good. With autonomy such a big issue with the Power Five, it’s going to be hard for Slive to convince other commissioners to side with the SEC on this one. This is something the SEC can get out in front on and capitalize on before more schools take advantage at the SEC’s expense.

“Whatever it is, it has to be a national rule that allows us all to operate the same,” Miles said.