ESPNEarlier this year, the NCAA football rules committee allowed conferences to experiment with a new, more "collaborative" instant replay system. The ACC and SEC have responded by developing centralized command centers to assist in-stadium crews on all replay reviews this fall.
The Big Ten will use its own replay collaboration procedures in 2016. But the league has decided to have the referee and replay officials in the stadium booth work together more closely, instead of going to a one-stop shop in the conference office.
"I'm a big believer that the decision should be made by the officials who are on the field or tied to the game, not front office people," said Bill Carollo, the Big Ten's coordinator of football officials. "You're moving the judgment from the field to sometimes 1,000 miles away."
Here's how replay will work in all Big Ten games this season: when there is a review, the referee will be handed a computer tablet so he can watch the same replays that the officials in the booth are seeing. In previous years, the referee simply listened on a headset as the replay official decided whether to overturn a call or let it stand.
Big Ten referees have been instructed that they are to be in "listen mode, not talk mode" during the review, Carollo said, and they won't have any control over the video they are seeing. But they can offer input if they think a rule is being misinterpreted or if the replay officials are missing something. The replay official always will have the final say on the decision, but involving the referee will allow the on-field crew chief to better explain those decisions to fans and to coaches on the sidelines.
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