In an ongoing effort to improve all facets of the sport, the ACC has decided to go the extra mile to ensure its football games are officiated properly.
As it wrapped up its annual spring meetings in Amelia Island, Fla., Thursday, the conference announced that what it calls “collaborative instant replay” will be utilized for all home games involving league schools. Included in that group is Notre Dame, which has a yearly scheduling agreement with the ACC.
According to the release, the conference “will allow replay officials situated in the conference office in Greensboro to participate in each and every review discussion with the on-site referee and replay official via their existing headset communication system.” The system that will be utilized by the ACC this season has been compared to the system in place in the NFL.
The ACC, after the NCAA approved such systems this past February, thus becomes the first conference to utilize a command center for helping in the officiating aspect of the game.
“This is another step in enhancing the quality of instant replay within college football,” said ACC commissioner John Swofford. “Officiating remains one of the highest priorities for our league, and our coaches and schools value the opportunity to be state of the art in this area.”
Other specifics of the venture include...
- Replay officials at the ACC office will view a program feed of all games (conference and non-conference) played at ACC venues and at Notre Dame in real time. VoIP communication will allow those collaborative replay officials to communicate instantly with those on-site.
- All video feeds that are available during a review to the replay official in-stadium will be also available to the collaborative replay officials in Greensboro.
- ACC coordinator of officiating Dennis Hennigan will oversee staffing of the collaborative replay center. Ted Jackson, who joined the ACC in January as Assistant Coordinator for Instant Replay, will be in the conference office each week as part of the collaborative replay officials team.
The collaborative instant replay system is an experimental rule for the 2016 season. Upon the conclusion of the upcoming season, the ACC will issue a report that will be utilized by the NCAA Football Rules Committee to help determine whether it will be a permanent fixture in the sport moving forward. If it is, the SEC is expected to quickly follow the ACC’s lead.
