The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

Well now, this changes things a little bit

August 28, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Looks like the Big 12 and the SEC, in this sudden and consistent plan to be BFFs as we enter the future of college football, are trying to make hundreds and thousands of allies this season.

Both conferences will be a little more liberal with in-house instant replay.

In the SEC, schools can show replays from the end of a play until the beginning of the next play, except when there’s a stoppage for an official review.

At that time, the stadium video board can show replays from the television network that is broadcasting the game. The network video feed can be shown between the referee’s announcement to stop a play for the review and his announcement of the review’s outcome.

“Fans in the stadium can now see many of the same views of a play seen by fans watching on television,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said.

In the Big 12, a replay can be shown up to three times.

“It includes plays that are under review, but also foul/penalties that have or haven’t been called, timing decisions at the end of game or other situations that would fall under the category of controversial play,” Big 12 associate commissioner for communications Bob Burda said.

Previously, the Big 12 and SEC allowed one real-time replay of a controversial play.

Hey, part of me likes this because it’s more organic and it kind of encourages audience participation, which invites a totally emotional and unpredictable set of consequential circumstances. And it’s a little like tinkering with  replay without tinkering with the rules — and that’s the last thing we need.

There’s a restriction in place, too. Any game in an SEC stadium will have this new replay application. The Big 12 will have the new way for conference games, but leave the decision up to the home team in non-conference games.

My guess is WVU will make the call for the JMU game. I don’t know what the decision will be for Saturday, but I bet it’s in place.

And, man, my mind races, mostly because last season had the absolute worst officiating I’d ever seen — and that covers in person and on television.

I include the former because, obviously, we saw some atrocities in games involving the Big 12 bound Mountaineers. I include the latter because frequently officials are definitively right or wrong based on those state-of-the-art views television broadcasts provide.

Well, that’s what the stadiums will be showing now. Tricky spot for Oliver Luck. Here’s a guy who has tried really hard to improve the behavior in his house. Nothing incites fans more than bad officiating.
He has a duty to his team because replays can make sure the officials get it right for the home team — but that also means he might get it right for the visiting team just as much or more.
And if it’s not in place, what happens the first time there’s a close play and 60,000 people look up and see Brick Tamland begging for loud noises? Oh, he’ll get a loud noise, all right.
Also, who’s in charge at Mountaineer Field? Has to be someone savvy enough to run the board, but also very attuned to football and fan reactions and game situations and all the variables involved. It’s a de facto 12th man, right?
The kicker? It threatens to slow the game the hell down. Every time there’s a close play, the team that thinks it’s been wronged will look at the video board and do everything within its power to make sure it gets a good look at a lot of replays. That would really bother me if I was Dana Holgorsen and I wanted to play fast.