Pay Up For Replay: It’s Credibility First, Then Affordability

And we all thought this was the technology age. Excuse me while I click this mouse and watch Anthony Thomas fumble--again.

How’s that for instant replay?

Instant gratification.

Instant controversy.

But the instant response for college football’s instant replay brouhaha is this: Forget it, it costs too much money. And as we’ve seen in the past, whatever costs money (read: takes money from the big conferences) eventually costs us all.

Now it has cost the credibility of the game.

“These refs are missing way too many calls,” Florida coach Steve Spurrier says. “You should always try to make your game better, make it more exact.” At this point, the officiating this season is about as exact as the security of nuclear secrets in New Mexico. Calls are routinely blown, some with profound impact on games and potentially seasons.

Things have gotten so bad, the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten stooped to apologizing and/or making excuses for poor officiating in the first month. Late last week, the Big Ten released a self-serving memo concerning blown calls in the Michigan-Illinois game, describing a great college atmosphere, an enthusiastic crowd, two well-coached teams and, oh, by the way, two blown calls that cost Illinois a big victory.

Think those two missed fumbles didn’t have a lasting effect on the Illini? A week later, a team that looked like one of the Big Ten’s best was blown out by Minnesota. So there sits Illinois coach Ron Turner, a season of hype and hope severely damaged because of human error.

Errors that could be rectified with instant replay.

“You would at least like to get it right and let the players decide it,” Turner says. “It’s discouraging. But I don’t think replay will happen in the near future.” The reason, more than anything, is money. Isn’t it always when it comes to change in college football? When the NFL implemented its current version of replay full-time in 1999, the start-up price tag was just under $8 million for 30 stadiums. But that includes numerous cameras and various angles required by the league.

Certainly it will cost to implement the system in college football, but there are ways to reduce the numbers and make it manageable. Let’s face it, college football is all about the haves and not so much about the have-nots. Therefore, any serious discussion of implementing replay need not involve all 115 Division I-A teams.

The Bowl Championship Series is running college football, with the Big Six conferences (SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, Big East and Pac-10) profiting the most. Implementing instant replay among the 62 teams in the Big Six would mean doubling the number of setups the NFL uses, something that could be accomplished through reduced use of cameras and angles.

Replay can be paid for the same way the NFL does it, through a television contract. With passion and fan interest at an all-time high, getting replay added to any extension--perhaps through the BCS’ television contract--wouldn’t be a problem.

The bottom line should be accountability and credibility, not affordability. Any system, no matter how watered down, is better than no system at all.

Instead, we hear about logistics and the time element involved in disputing calls and having a clear distinction between college football and the NFL.

“(Replay) removes the human element from the game,” Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese says. “Errors are made, and you have to try to overcome them.”

Tell that to Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, whose team beat up Florida for 58 minutes only to have the game end in the final seconds on a questionable possession call from an official.

Illinois was hit twice by poor calls in the fourth quarter in that 35-31 loss to Michigan--one an erroneously called fumble that ended a potential scoring drive and another a fumble by Anthony Thomas that wasn’t called that extended the Wolverines’ game-winning drive.

Vanderbilt was hurt by a missed fumble call in a September 9 loss to Alabama, a mistake the SEC later apologized for. UCLA lost an obvious touchdown pass at Oregon on a blown call two weeks ago.

“I don’t know all the ramifications of having replay,” Fulmer says. “But after some of the recent things that have happened, I would be for researching it.”

The problem is, not all coaches are for the idea. Michigan coach Lloyd Carr was miffed after the Big Ten apologized for the missed calls, saying he thought the game was “relatively well-officiated.” Then again, he complained about officiating a week earlier in Michigan’s loss at UCLA.

Some coaches simply think it’s an infringement on the game, that officials should be held accountable the same way coaches and players are. But they usually aren’t. The crew that made the call on the Jabar Gaffney (non)catch in the Florida-Tennessee game missed a critical fumble call in last year’s Georgia-Georgia Tech game.

The SEC pled mea culpa on that one, too.

“If you make a mistake as a football player or a coach,” Nebraska coach Frank Solich says, “you don’t get a second chance.”

But it’s not so much a second chance as it is a second set of eyes on every play. With no national playoff, each game becomes critical in the national title chase and the race for prestigious bowl bids.

There is talk that replay could eventually be used for league championship games and the BCS bowl games. But as far as getting to those games unscathed by missed calls, well, you’re on your own.

“There’s just too much at stake,” Spurrier says. “We need to find a way to do it better. We need an updated version of our game.”

Or we can look at it in the same light as Charles Barkley, who so eloquently once said after getting tossed for arguing a poor call: “He made a stupid call, and it will be stupid until the day he dies. But we’re all human.”

It’s a matter of human perspective. Yours, mine and even Carr’s skewed sight. But at this point, the only perspective that matters comes from the men in black and white stripes.

And we can’t help them out.

“If you throw the cost factor out, I think it’s a great tool,” Alabama coach Mike DuBose says. “The game is faster than it has been . . . it’s more difficult to officiate the game than it has ever been.”