College football gets uniform instant replay system

[Irish Envy]

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA will allow a football coach to challenge one ruling by officials per game and have it reviewed by replay, provided his team has an available timeout.

Under a proposal approved Tuesday by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel, if a coach's challenge is successful, no timeout will be charged.

"This revised proposal achieves the intended result of the rules committee to incorporate a challenge into the video replay system," panel chairman John Cochrane said.

The NCAA allowed the use of video replays at all schools and conferences last season, and nine of the 11 Division I-A conferences used some form of replay. The revision to include the challenge by coaches was proposed by the Football Rules Committee.

Georgia coach Mark Richt was initially against the change, saying "it's one more thing to worry about." But he also believes it could come in handy.

"I'm sure there will be a time or two that I'll be glad that it's in place," Richt said Tuesday. "The thing I don't like about it is not really knowing for sure when to throw it. I haven't lived through it. The fans may be booing or a player may be like, 'Throw the flag,' or I might in my heart want to throw the flag. But if I throw it at the wrong time, I lose the possibility of that for the rest of the game. I wish I had a good way of knowing when I ought to throw the darn thing. But I guess we all have the same problem."

The panel also approved a revision of the rule on the length of halftime in football. The recommended time is 20 minutes, but it may be lengthened or shortened with the consent of both schools.

Among basketball proposals, the panel approved a requirement that Division II and Division III schools have game clocks that display 10ths of a second and shot clocks mounted on backboards, starting with the 2010-11 season

"The panel's main concern with this change was financial, and the group is comfortable that the rules committees have provided plenty of time to plan and budget for this important aspect of the game," Cochrane said.

A proposal barring a player from calling a timeout while falling out of bounds or into the backcourt also was approved.

No further action is required for any of the proposals.

Source: USA Today

 

[ant80]

I am not sure i agree with the rationale of the coaches challenge. The officials are paid to provide rulings. There must be some sort of a better communications between the review team upstairs and the coaches in the field, to avoid the disaster that was the scUM-Nebraska game. However, what if there are two plays in the game where the rulings on field that could've gone either way? The coach throws the flag on the first play, and is ruled incorrect, and on the second play, there is no review, but replays show evidence in favor of the coach? My point is, if there is reasonable doubt that the ruling was correct, the referees must automatically review it. That is the sole purpose of the review system.

 

[KMac151993]

I don't know how much I like this new replay thing in college football, just let the refs make the call and stick with it...sure sometimes they miss something but thats part of the game.

 

[Irish Envy]

Being the technologist that I am, I am in favor of instant replay.

Anytime you leave something solely in the hands of humans, there is room for error, especially older men who are not the fleetest of foot, mind, etc. Giving them the ability to review critical calls is essential to ensuring fairness to the teams playing the game.

 

[Irish Legend]

Especially the refs who have a bias against N.D.!! There are quite a few.

 

[bmf175]

I think instant replay is a GREAT thing.

People can say bad calls cancel each other out for each team, but I call B.S. on that theory.

Refs are human and it is human to make mistakes, but if we had the technology to reduce or stop mistakes why not use it??? Its a competition to see which team is the best on that given day, not which team gets the better break on bad ref calls. Its simple.....Replay should have been apart of the college game a long time ago.

However I do not agree with only one challenge in a game. At least one per half, or you can only challenge if you have timeouts.

 

[ant80]

Do away with coaches challenge altogether. Perform genetic engineering to ensure the refs grow balls to stop the game clock for a review.

 

[PantsB]

I think instant replay is a GREAT thing.

People can say bad calls cancel each other out for each team, but I call B.S. on that theory.

Refs are human and it is human to make mistakes, but if we had the technology to reduce or stop mistakes why not use it??? Its a competition to see which team is the best on that given day, not which team gets the better break on bad ref calls. Its simple.....Replay should have been apart of the college game a long time ago.

However I do not agree with only one challenge in a game. At least one per half, or you can only challenge if you have timeouts.

I agree, they might balance out on a long enough timeline but this is football, a game of small sample size.

So the review booth can not initiate a review now? That makes no sense. One coach challenge a game is better than none but ....