As officiating and replay decisions become more integral to sports, some leagues are finally willing to open up and be more transparent about the entire process, including the Big XII.
According to a report from The Athletic, the conference will take fans behind the curtain of their replay center, offering fans live video and audio during games this fall. The Big XII will follow in the footsteps of the ACC, which made a similar decision last year to the delight of fans and others throughout the sport. It’s also been a hallmark of UFL telecasts, which have often been an experimental proving ground for ideas like these.
The league will consult with ESPN and Fox as television partners on where the technology will be in use to take fans inside the review process.
“(Commissioner Jim Phillips) and the ACC were first movers collegiately, they did a hell of a job,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said. “We took that idea and said, boy, it’s transferable to the Big 12.”
The Big 12 did use live video to show the replay review process a few weeks into the 2025 football season, but its setup couldn’t provide the audio. That has been fixed for 2026. The league is building out a new replay operations center in the Irving, Texas, office building that houses its headquarters for 2027, and the replay center will be used for several Big 12 sports.
For football, the league’s top in-stadium replay officials will be together in the center when it opens and lead the review process during games. The league has not yet determined with ESPN and Fox how many games will include this as part of broadcasts this fall.
“The greater transparency into the process helps fans understand, and that’s good for the sport,” Big 12 chief football and competition officer Scott Draper told The Athletic. “It’s good when everyone can see when we have a tight, difficult call, what that decision-making was and the angles we had.”
More transparency in officiating is always a good thing. Football is the most complicated sport to officiate by far, and sometimes fans are left flummoxed by decisions they don’t understand. Of course not everyone is going to agree with the process or the calls one hundred percent of the time, but at least they will be able to see and hear the arguments and reasons why.
How many times have we sat and watched a replay review process in the NFL or NBA and been told one thing by the rules experts but see another decision being made? What about in soccer where a commentator will advise folks watching that VAR are investigating a situation, bringing a sense of mystery and panic, before moving on without any idea why. It’s a frustrating position for fans, and it only creates a cloud of uncertainty that is all too easily filled by conspiracy.
Hopefully these moves by the ACC and Big XII inspire others throughout not just college football, but all of sports, to do the same.
About Matt Yoder