Replay officials still don't use high definition

High definition is merely a high ambition for instant replay officials. It turns out you can see college football games more clearly from your couch than they can in the booth.

This is the fourth season the Pac-10 has used instant replay to review calls, but all of the high-priced equipment yields only a standard definition feed. The league and NCAA will be experimenting at  Thursday's game between USC and Oregon State as they try to make a bold leap into the 1990s.

According to a spokesman from XOS Replay Systems,  "NCAA replay officials will for the first time be able to review plays in the same high resolution as the HD broadcast viewers at home."

This glacial technological progress can't please anybody on campus or in Vegas. It also might explain something about the poor reputation of Pac-10 officiating crews. Considering HDTVs went on sale in 1998 and are now readily available for a few hundred dollars, it's hard to imagine why this wasn't done earlier.

A Pac-10 official said that full HD replay systems can be cost prohibitive. Four years ago, the league spent about $100,000 per school just to set things up in standard definition. Add in periodic upgrades over the last few years, and they'll have lost a lot of money when everything is scrapped for new equipment that potentially could cost several hundred thousand dollars per school.

Or maybe they could spend a couple of thousand bucks at Costco.

Oregon State was chosen for this experiment because the school has a large replay booth and they can evaluate the high definition system alongside the traditional method. It also helps that the game is being played on a Thursday, so there will be no other games for league officials to deal with. The high definition system is only a demonstration and will not be used to make any decisions affecting the actual contest.

XOS Technologies is the largest supplier of replay technologies in the market, with more than 100 systems being used for football, basketball and hockey. They serve the Pac-10, Big 12, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Sun Belt Conference and the Canadian Football League.

-- Adam Rose
Photo: NFL officials using standard definition instant replay in 1996. (Honestly, just an excuse to put a photo with Warren Moon in this blog.) Credit: Tom Olmscheid/AP.

Comments

[Justin]

They can always call me from the booth and I'll give them the correct call from my Costco HDTV.

[gerrrg]

Or they could just look up at the replays on the giant screen at the Coliseum.