As technology improves, officiating undergoing 21st century revolution

HOOVER, Ala. – SEC Coordinator of Officials Steve Shaw, a former referee himself, recognizes his profession is undergoing a revolution midway through the second decade of the 21st century.

From wireless communications between crew members to adding an eight official to adding a medical observer to the newly implemented collaborative video replay, football officiating has undergone significant changes over the last five years or so in an effort to adapt to the modern game and keep up with technology and pace of play.

“I'm not sure people really think about officiating when they think about change and innovation,” Shaw said Tuesday as he kicked off Day 2 of SEC Media Days at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham – The Wynfrey Hotel. “But I believe, as officials, we've got to continue to innovate and intentionally build new and better ways to officiate the great game that we have. Over the past few years, our innovation rate has been great.”

This year, collaborative replay is all the rage in the SEC as the conference has built a NFL-style command center at league headquarters in Birmingham to aid the on-site replay official with his decisions.

“Instant replay is the next target for significant change for us,” Shaw said. “Other than high definition, over the last ten-plus years, there's been very little change in the process of instant replay. So, it's time to take a look at it and continue to drive for excellence in replay. We can't just stay status quo.

“I don't want to lose sight that it is an experimental rule, but it is a process that we need to get better at replay. I'm excited about moving with it this year.”

Three weeks ago, the SEC announced the hiring of Ben Oldham, a 40-year officiating veteran, as its Coordinator of Football Replay for the 2016 season. Oldham will report directly to Shaw.

Oldham will serve as one of the SEC’s collaborative replay officials embedded at the ‘Central Review Center’ each Saturday during the 2016 season.

“We're going have three house replay officials sitting in our video center in Birmingham, and they're going to have live feed and live communication to the stadium in every one of our venues,” Shaw said. “The three officials will be assigned specific games, but if there's a stop in any one of our stadiums, the three will come together, collaborate together and actually be collaborating with the replay official in the stadium. They'll be able to talk together and ultimately, we believe, come up with the right answer through that collaborative process.”

All 14 schools have installed new video replay equipment inside their stadiums that gives replay officials a greater variety of views when replay review is required.

“We're going to be replacing all of our replay gear with a new quad system,” Shaw said. “Basically the new replay gear does everything the old system would do but now allows the replay official to get his views quicker. We'll now link in the coaches' end zone and sideline (views) into that as well so they'll have access to that video, so it will be a help in the replay booth.”

Shaw doesn’t expect collaborative replay to increase the length of games.

“Last year, our average replay stop was 1:21. This is not about time, it is not about speed, it's about getting it right,” Shaw said. “But the expectation is we will not add time to the process. Last year we averaged about two stops per game, so if we can hold that time consistent, I don't think fans will even know that process is going on.”

NOTES

-- Shaw said adding an eighth official to SEC crews last season “made a significant difference in the game.”

-- Another important rule change for 2016 is the replay official has been granted broadened authority to call targeting from the booth in “egregious” situations when the field officials miss the call. Shaw said he is “really excited” about the new rule and that “egregious” situations arose twice last season that would have resulted in players being ejected for targeting. Overall, the SEC had 20 targeting fouls called in 2015, Shaw said. “We're seeing a player behavior change, and I think we're making good progress around targeting,” he said.

-- After putting a medical observer in the replay booth on an experimental basis in 2015, the rule will become permanent this season. The medical observer has the authority to stop the game and order a player removed from the game. It happened one time in a game involving a SEC team in 2015. “Our medical people do a great job on the sideline and the players themselves and the officials police it,” Shaw said. “But the medical observer had one time last season where they saw that a player could potentially be injured and wanted to get him checked out further.”

-- While one instance in which a player was removed from a game might not seem much, Shaw said the dialogue between the medical observer and the medical staffs during games made the experiment worth the cost. “Because the medical observer has the video, they can see hits,” Shaw said. “They can see impacts and they can pass information to our medical people about what happened on a specific play to help them diagnose and get a player back as soon as possible. So, we've really gotten a lot of benefit there and we will continue with that. We'll have a neutral medical observer at every game at an SEC venue. That is now an absolute rule.”

-- A sliding ball carrier is now considered “defenseless,” so any forcible contact to the head or neck area is a potential targeting penalty. “When you see that player go into a slide, pull up, stay off his head, and hopefully there's a player change of behavior there that helps us,” Shaw said.

-- Starting in 2016, tripping may be called on the ball carrier (previously, that was a key exception to the tripping rule) in order to help prevent injuries. “We saw last year a number of times when guys tripped the runner, kicked the runner and it wasn't a foul,” Shaw said. “Yet, it created injury, so this is a good (rule change).”

-- National points of emphasis: 1) targeting and dangerous contact fouls; 2) Coaches' sideline management control (16 warnings issued to SEC coaches in 2015); 3) managing pace of play and substitutions and 4) unsportsmanlike conduct fouls.