When plays are being reviewed, what is said between the officials on the field and the people in the control room? During the ACC Network broadcast of Saturday night’s game between East Texas A&M and SMU, viewers got some insight into that.
During a review of a fumble (as originally called on the field) in the first quarter, the ACC Gameday Operations Center in Charlotte was shown. Viewers got a glimpse of what the officials in Charlotte were seeing and got to hear what they said to the referee on the field.
Bill Hofheimer, who oversees ESPN’s college sports public relations, shared video of the review conversation on X.
While this is a first for college football, this isn’t entirely unprecedented. In February of 2020, the XFL gave fans a similar look into the control room during reviews.
That said, until now, it has not been adopted by either college football or the NFL. And on Saturday night, the general feeling among viewers was that the transparency into the review process should become part of broadcasts going forward.
Time will tell if this does become commonplace. Early returns, though, are positive.
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