This year, college football teams will be allowed to use coach-player communication technology during bowl games outside of the College Football Playoff, NCAA National Coordinator of Officials Steve Shaw said. Athleticism Monday.
While the news arrives amid sign-stealing/advanced reconnaissance investigation involving Michigan football, the bowl experiment was actually approved this summer by the NCAA Football Rules Committee. CBS Sports first reported the approval last week.
“This has been a topic that has been the focus of the Rules Committee for the last couple of years,” Shaw said. “There is a lot of momentum towards opening this file. We would like to have very good feedback on the playoffs.
Details of what type of testing will take place during the bowl season still need to be determined by FBS conference administrators, including what type of technology would be allowed, from in-helmet communication to wristband communication tools. It is likely that both teams will have to agree to use such tools in a bowl, but it also remains unclear whether they will have to use the same technology. Many schools are already using helmet or wristband technology in practice with their scout teams.
FBS conference football administrators are currently gathering feedback from their coaches on their preferences, a conference administrator said. Athleticism. Another administrator level call is planned this week.
“We’re still sorting out the rules of the road,” Shaw said of the bowl experience. “Should both teams do it? Can they use different technologies? What if a team doesn’t want to use it? We still have to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.”
The bowl experiment is the result of a proposal by the Big Ten Rules Committee to use coach-player communication technology in conference games this year; The Big Ten also pioneered the use of instant replay technology in college football in 2004. The rules committee ultimately determined that such communications technology would have too much impact on the game on the field compared to other conferences that weren’t using it, Shaw said, and could possibly create problems such as unfair comparisons between teams for College Football Playoff seeding purposes. The bowl experiment will be used as an information gathering tool.
Multiple Big Ten sources said Athleticism that the Michigan The allegations fueled another push within the conference to adopt these changes next season. The Big Ten also proposed the use of tablets on the sidelines this summer, but that, too, was not approved by the commission.
If the communications technology is used in bowl games and the feedback is positive, it could be offered and approved on a much larger scale next year. That’s when it will be decided whether it will be done conference by conference or division by division.
THE NFL has used helmet communication technology since 1994, but progress has not occurred in college football due to a combination of factors, including helmet liability, costs and sign-stealing coaches who don’t want it. The biggest hurdle lies with helmet manufacturers, because any third-party adjustment of helmets could shift liability in a head injury lawsuit, for example, even if the fitted helmet still passes the helmet’s standard safety test. industry. The NFL is a different situationwith its own helmet contracts and agreements with the players’ union.
Grambling and Southern tested CoachComm’s head-mounted coach-player communication system during a 2021 game, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Shaw and the rules committee remain neutral on specific technologies and companies, but one conference administrator believes that wristband technology is more likely to spread more widely, due to the liability hurdle of wearing a helmet.
Either way, the first step toward ending sideline shenanigans for play calls and sign stealing could come later this season, and its timing with the Michigan controversy is just a coincidence .
“The rules committee did its job,” Shaw said of the bowl experience. “Now the conferences will work together on the rules of the road.”
(Photo: Ali Gradischer/Getty Images)
