Texas High School Football Championships to have instant replay starting in 2018

[MJWalker45]

I'm interested to see if this catches on in other states. Since all state championships are shot with over 12 cameras it's possible to use this, not so much for all playoff games:

 

https://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/high_school/high_school_football/article/UIL-adding-instant-replay-to-state-title-games-12847874.php#photo-14250889

The University Interscholastic League, which governs public-school athletic competition in the state, announced Thursday that it will use instant replay in all of its state championship games beginning with the 2018 season. The games are scheduled for Dec. 19-22 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.The UIL will follow NCAA rules for replay, with all reviews being initiated by a collegiate official in a replay booth. There will be no coaches' challenges, and targeting will not be called as a result of a review.

"With all UIL State Championship football games at a single location, we have the technology and ability to utilize these powerful tools to make the state championships the best possible experience for coaches, players, officials and fans," UIL executive director Charles Breithaupt said in a statement released by the UIL. "Instant replay will help ensure that the calls during the biggest games of the year are as correct as possible."

 

Replay will not be permitted for regular-season games or playoff games before the state finals.

@LMU This probably need to go to Sports in General

[dfwabel]

Massachusetts and Texas are the only two state which use NCAA rules for their HS games, so I'm not sure who else would dive in but Massachusetts.  There is also a glut of officials in Texas who are the "replay guy/gal" for all the conferences which Texas NCAA teams participate (Big XII, C-USA, AAC, SEC, Southland, SWAC, Sun Belt) who are available to work that weekend.

[GrayJ12]

I don't know what to think about this. It just depends if anything big or controversial happens with this system.

[Sykotyk]

Minnesota already did this last year for the semifinals and finals at US Bank Stadium.

 

The problem is the number of cameras needed. For Minnesota, at a professional stadium using enough cameras to broadcast the games statewide in HD, they still had not a single call in the semifinals get overturned that I noticed. Just not enough cameras trained on exactly what they wanted to see. Instead, it was just a long break in the action for no reason.

 

Now, Texas broadcasts on Fox Sports Southwest, and will probably bring a regular college football game's camera total. So, will be more likely.

 

But, to me, this is unfair. What if Team A won the semifinal, or even quarterfinal, because of a blown or missed call, but once they get to the state title, a blown call will be caught. So, that team that should've moved on back in the quarterfinals or semifinals is sitting at home, watching replay overturn a blown call.

 

Surely, this can't be implemented throughout the playoffs. So, the status quo is good for every other playoff game, it should be good for the last 12.

[MJWalker45]

17 hours ago, Sykotyk said:

Minnesota already did this last year for the semifinals and finals at US Bank Stadium.

 

The problem is the number of cameras needed. For Minnesota, at a professional stadium using enough cameras to broadcast the games statewide in HD, they still had not a single call in the semifinals get overturned that I noticed. Just not enough cameras trained on exactly what they wanted to see. Instead, it was just a long break in the action for no reason.

 

Now, Texas broadcasts on Fox Sports Southwest, and will probably bring a regular college football game's camera total. So, will be more likely.

 

But, to me, this is unfair. What if Team A won the semifinal, or even quarterfinal, because of a blown or missed call, but once they get to the state title, a blown call will be caught. So, that team that should've moved on back in the quarterfinals or semifinals is sitting at home, watching replay overturn a blown call.

 

Surely, this can't be implemented throughout the playoffs. So, the status quo is good for every other playoff game, it should be good for the last 12.

This will only be used for state championship games. The other issue is if the stadium can support that many cameras. Nrg Stadium, Alamodome and the FBS stadiums could support this but not the bigger high school stadiums or the FCS and below. 

[Sykotyk]

1 hour ago, MJWalker45 said:

This will only be used for state championship games. The other issue is if the stadium can support that many cameras. Nrg Stadium, Alamodome and the FBS stadiums could support this but not the bigger high school stadiums or the FCS and below. 

 

Exactly. That's the problem. So, teams can be bumped due to bad calls in every other round, but if they're lucky enough to make it to the final, if they get a bad call their way it gets fixed. The 'best team' may get bumped earlier from a bad call and never get to see the final.

 

That's the problem. The same rules should apply to all games.

 

This would be like have a 5-man officiating crew in the early rounds and an 8-man crew for the finals calling penalties. It just wouldn't be fair.

[Mac the Knife]

I have a radical idea.

 

Bear with me on this one... it's just a thought.

 

Rather than have instant replay utilized as an element of high school football games, in any state, how about they take that money and... I dunno... maybe apply it to ****ing educating the kids instead?

[dfwabel]

8 minutes ago, Mac the Knife said:

I have a radical idea.

 

Bear with me on this one... it's just a thought.

 

Rather than have instant replay utilized as an element of high school football games, in any state, how about they take that money and... I dunno... maybe apply it to ****ing educating the kids instead?

Oh, in Texas, that's been tried before.

 

From 2008, the Ennis HS radio crew...

http://media.usave.it/media/rec-ytr3a0NeF2qd1wiNKw71.mp3

[MJWalker45]

11 hours ago, Mac the Knife said:

I have a radical idea.

 

Bear with me on this one... it's just a thought.

 

Rather than have instant replay utilized as an element of high school football games, in any state, how about they take that money and... I dunno... maybe apply it to ****ing educating the kids instead?

I'm pretty sure this is more a case of Fox Southwest specifically wanting to try this at the state championship so there's no extra money being given.

[Cosmic]

I don't have a problem with different ways to get the right call for playoffs/championships. The rules aren't actually different; it just makes it less likely to have a blown call.

 

It's different than changing in the middle of a season. The playoff games are not being compared to those games during the regular season pre-change for standings.

 

That's like saying they shouldn't have a longer halftime during the Super Bowl because some team that missed the playoffs might have won in Week 3 if they had more time to rest at the half.