Big Ten officiating command center coming?
The SEC has one. So does the Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC. But, the Big Ten doesn’t. We’re talking about an off-site officiating command center to collaborate with on-site officials on penalty reviews.
Adding an officiating command center was discussed at a recent meeting of Big Ten coaches and administrators.
“I think everybody is on board with exploring it and looking into going to do it,” a Big Ten head coach told On3. “The conference would have to figure out if this is feasible and if it’s financially attainable here quickly if it wants to get it done before this fall.”
The 2016 season was the first in which the NCAA allowed conferences to use people other than the stadium replay official to assist on reviews. That year, the SEC and ACC used a centralized command center. The Pac-12 and Big 12 opened command centers in 2017.
The Big Ten studied centralized replay entering 2016 but didn’t implement it. And still hasn’t. Rather, the Big Ten relies on referees looking at a screen on the field and collaborating with the on-site replay official in the booth for reviews.
If the Big Ten had a centralized command center, where would it be? Chicago? Los Angeles?
“We voted to do it as coaches, it went to the ADs,” the Big Ten head coach said. “It looked like it was unanimously voted to approve to do it (by ADs). But what we’ve learned as coaches, especially through COVID and beyond, is once we leave the room, we have no idea where this stuff is going. It’s an interesting time. It’s a really interesting time.”
The Jim Delany administration was reticent about being involved in reviewing calls. Why? It’s believed it didn’t want the league office to be accused of making decisions in favor of one school over another.
“It was expressed to us, and I think appropriately: Who is making the decision (in the command room)?” said the Big Ten coach. “Who’s in that room? And there was trepidation created. And that’s why we didn’t do it initially.”
Finding trusted decision-makers to man the command center is the big point of concern.
“Who should be in there?” said a second Big Ten head coach. “Who’s going to be in there? If you’re just gonna have some random people, I think everybody’s like, ‘no thanks.’ But if you’re gonna have (Big Ten director of officiating) Bill Carollo in there, and then there’s gonna be people in this command center consistently, I think that’s what everybody’s looking for.”
The move to a command center appears imminent. It could happen as soon as the 2023 season.
“I think it will happen this season,” said the second Big Ten head coach.
