And another thing...
When a play is reviewed at an FBS stadium, the play is typically presented to the entire stadium on the video board, so the crowd at least has some idea about what is being reviewed.
Yes, a lot of Texas high school stadia have video boards, but they remain in a very strong minority. I don’t imagine every school district that currently doesn’t have a board will suddenly find the funds to install boards, and pay for somebody to operate it, maintain it, etc. I’m sure most Texans know that many, many school districts are struggling to just keep their doors open, much less put a video board in their stadia that seat just a few hundred people. Indeed, even some larger districts don’t put enough rear-ends in seats to pay their game-day overhead (including game officials) from the gate receipts. Board of Trustee meetings in which a video board purchase is discussed get very, uh, shall we say, “interesting.” Honestly, if I was a taxpayer in one of those districts, I’d probably raise heck if they wanted to use tax revenue to buy a board, when the kids were riding 20-year old yellow dogs to school every day, that required regular maintenance just to keep them running.
Between the cost of the Replay video system (at any level of sophistication/quality), the replay official, at least a technical assistant, if not a true replay assistant, camera operators, and, perhaps, a video board, there are still only a handful of districts that are going to be in a position able to implement replay, even if they can convince their Trustees to spend the money. Very few school districts in Texas with multiple HSs use a common district stadium, so they’d have to provide these systems at each of their stadia. And, if Replay is to be used at any level below the championship games, how? Would a common system need to be dictated by the UIL? Would the ROs be trained and provided through TASO? What would happen if/when they want to play at a non-UIL site (like an NCAA stadium)? Would the schools bring the Replay system? Or use the system available on site? What if it is a different system, and the RO/TA are unfamiliar with it?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. The NCAA has spent over 10 years figuring all this out, with a fraction of the total number of institutions in the UIL. I can’t speak for other states, but, at least in Texas, they didn’t/don’t have to worry about taxpayers, since state institutions are not permitted to use tuition revenue for athletics. All athletic departments and sports are self-supporting through ticket sales, donations, etc. Far easier for the NCAA to mandate, and implement, the use of replay.
I just don’t see it happening for UIL. Yeah, they may try it for championship games, but they’ll open a Pandora’s box they’ll never get closed.
Robert
