College replay should go to school on NFL
Though it took 20-some years of getting used to, the National Football League’s instant replay system has somehow begun to feel reasonably comfortable, even if that’s just some kind of delusion brought on by exposure to its neurotic half-brother, the replay system currently occupying the dark, illogical attics of college football.
In the NFL, which started fooling around with replay to correct blown officiating calls in 1986 and didn’t make the current model permanent until last year, a modicum of restraint as to when replay needs to be deployed is a learned behavior. Coaches lose a timeout if their replay challenge is shown to be a mere nuisance, which most are, and even in the final two minutes of each half, when a league replay official can order a review, video validations or corrections now proceed up tempo.
post-gazette.com
11/2/08
