The Manning Passing Academy (MPA) could have become something much, much bigger by now.
It could have been moved to Orlando. Disney came calling years ago with the kind of pitch that makes sense if the goal is to make things bigger (which, usually, is at the heart of most everything in sports). And what a draw Disney would have been for the MPA…it’s Disney. Families could go to the parks. The camp could run for a week. The Mannings could rotate in and out. Coaches could come at different times. Everything could be larger and easier to market and monetize — and the only thing limiting growth would have been imagination.
Peyton Manning remembers the conversations vividly. “I remember telling my dad, you can move it to Disney, but Eli and I won’t be going with you,” Peyton said. “We’re going to do it in Louisiana where we played high school football. That’s the only place to do it.”
That answer may explain why the camp is still thriving and has never lost its way.
Yes, the Manning Passing Academy has grown into a national event. This is the 30th year. More than 1,200 players are back at Nicholls State this week, with quarterbacks, receivers, tight ends and running backs coming from across the country. The camp has become a stop for the best college quarterbacks in the country, a place where future NFL players work as counselors before they reach the league. But the whole thing still feels local because it is local. Because it never let the seedy side of sports steal its soul.
Archie Manning started the camp in 1996 with a much smaller idea. He said the first year had 185 campers. Peyton was going into his junior year at Tennessee. Eli was still a kid. The players mostly came from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Archie figured maybe the camp could grow into a regional thing, something that brought in 300 or 400 kids every summer, if he played his cards right.
Thirty years later, it draws kids from all 50 states and players from different countries, as well as 14 young women who are there to sharpen their skills for playing flag football.
“Our mission was to enhance the high school experience,” Archie said. “We’re not trying to make high school players into college quarterbacks. We’re not trying to make college receivers. Our mission was to enhance the high school experience.”
Disney was a fork in the road. The Mannings could have chased the bigger version of the event, but they kept it in Louisiana and kept football at the center.
“Keep it in South Louisiana, keep it just about football,” Eli said. “We don’t go to movies. We don’t go to water parks. It’s not a celebration. It’s not a party. This is football.”
Football camps can become a lot of things once enough people start paying attention and people associated with the games get involved. Recruiting showcases. Social events. Brand platforms. A place where the actual kids drift into the background while everyone else chases access or rankings or money.
Peyton has seen it happen. College camps serve a different purpose now. A lot of them are about evaluation. Run the 40. Test the vertical. Figure out who should be recruited. He gets why that exists. Colleges need to find players, and players need to find colleges. But that’s not what the Mannings are after.
“People ask me about NIL [Name, Image, and Likeness rights of players], and I don’t have any advice because I didn’t play when that was going on,” Peyton said. “But I can help them with how to read a defense and how to get their footwork right.”
Three-step drops. Five-step drops. Reading coverage. Throwing mechanics. Competing in seven-on-seven. Meeting about football when the practices are over. That’s what the Manning Passing Academy is all about.
Eli said the campers go through three practices a day. They play seven-on-seven. During downtime, they are still meeting about football.
“It’s really about trying to get better and helping these kids,” Eli said. “I think that’s the mindset, and we’ve never gotten away from that.”
The things that have made this camp special are the same things that have kept the camp special over the years. It’s a family business for local folks. Archie Manning is still working the phones to get college quarterbacks there. Peyton, Eli and Cooper are still coaching. Cooper’s sons have moved through the program from camper to counselor, and Peyton and Eli’s former teammates are now sending their own kids to the MPA.
Peyton said it makes him feel old when a former teammate calls to say he is bringing his son. Austin Collie, one of Peyton’s receivers with the Colts, had two boys at the camp. Peyton’s son Marshall has been through it, and Cooper’s son Arch Manning attended the MPA and was a counselor there after his first season at Texas.
“It’s been important to our family that this camp has continued and helps kids from all over,” Peyton said. “But it’s certainly fun to have family members here as well.”
“It’s about us being together,” Eli said. “I like coaching the kids, but I like hanging out with Peyton. I like working with him at night and having lunch with him and being in the dorm room. That’s kind of what’s special for us coming here.”
The camp also has value for South Louisiana. It brings families into hotels, restaurants and local businesses every summer. Nicholls has promoted the 2026 camp as a major economic driver for the Bayou region. Local estimates have put the annual impact between $2.5 million and $3.2 million. And Peyton said it plainly: Louisiana is the only place to do it.
If you think about it, this camp has had every reason to drift. It has the Manning name. It has star power. It has history. It has enough successful alumni to sell itself as a pipeline, if the family wanted to frame it that way.
There might not be anything more telling on what the camp is about than this: Despite dozens of eventual NFL players coming through the camp, Archie couldn’t tell you which ones have been there or not. He doesn’t track the campers; it doesn’t matter to him. Sometimes he calls a college quarterback to invite him as a counselor and finds out the player attended the camp for two years as a kid. Archie actually seems more interested in the former campers who walk up years later and tell him they were there during this year or that year. It’s not about the clout or attention. It’s about helping high school players, teaching fundamentals and doing something for his family and state. Help a quarterback play with more confidence. Help a receiver understand timing. Give a high school player something useful before the season starts. And let him enjoy football. That is the soul of the thing.
The Manning Passing Academy is national now. The best college quarterbacks come through Thibodaux. NFL players have passed through it, and the names attached to it will always create attention. You don’t need Disney for that. But the camp still belongs to Louisiana. Sounds like it will as long as it keeps going, too. I asked Eli if the family plans on keeping this thing going once Archie stops running it. He looked over at his dad, thought for a beat, and then started talking. In that pause, you could see him calculating all the work his dad does to make this happen. “We’ll see,” he said.
It’s a lot of work. Archie stays in touch with the college players, gets the right people there, and makes sure the whole thing still feels like what it is supposed to be. Looking at all the campers and how things happen on time, you can tell a lot goes into it.
“He’s passionate about it, and it shows,” Eli said.
Eli did not make some big declaration about carrying it forever. He put a condition on it, which is probably the right way to think about something like this. “We’ll do it as long as it’s still being run well and the college kids want to come and the high school kids want to come,” Eli said. “Peyton and I love being here. We love coaching ball and having fun doing it.”
That is about as close as he came to a promise. One thing you can bet on, though, is as long as it’s going on, it sounds like it will be going on here, in Louisiana, where it belongs.
