What Is Stopping College Football From Using Helmet Communication?

There is a sign-stealing and sophisticated scouting controversy involving Michigan. This suggests that college football’s long-standing sign-stealing habit may be about to end. Now NCAA Is investigating Hemlet communication!

What Is Stopping College Football From Using Helmet Communication?

The NCAA Rules Committee is allowing teams to broadcast plays from the sideline to players via coach-to-player helmet communications for the 2023–24 bowl season. For whatever reason, the practice has not caught on in the FBS despite being a cornerstone of the NFL for almost thirty years.

That could soon be different.

The Athletic’s Chris Vannini can offer us an explanation.

It turns out that safety is the issue.

In order to communicate with players, the majority of college coaches want radios installed in helmets. However, teams would have to alter the helmet’s construction to do this.

This is the primary issue, as Vannini elucidates.

“The NFL has used helmet communication technology since 1994, but the advances have not come to college football due to a combination of factors including helmet liability, costs and sign-stealing coaches who don’t want it,” Vannini writes. “The largest hurdle is the helmet manufacturers, as any third-party adjustment to helmets could shift liability in a lawsuit over head injuries, for example, even if the adjusted helmet still passes the industry standard safety test. The NFL is a different situation, with its own helmet contracts and agreements with the players’ union.”

In the NFL, the quarterback may hear the coach call the play by having a speaker installed inside his helmet. The play call is heard by one player on the defensive side of the football from the sideline. College football teams presently forbid this kind of communication.

The head coach of Alabama said in-helmet communication devices would stop scandals like the one going on at the University of Michigan during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday.

They’re already used by the NFL. Professional quarterbacks wear speakers inside their helmets so they can hear the play call from the coach on the sidelines without having to signal. However, at the collegiate level, these communication techniques are not yet allowed.

Following reports of a sign-stealing scheme, the NCAA opened an inquiry against the second-ranked Michigan Wolverines. However, Saban thinks that equipping helmets with speakers would cut down on the amount of time teams might spend analyzing the signals of their opponents.

There are no specific laws in the NCAA rule book that forbid swiping signs. However, there are restrictions prohibiting advanced opponent reconnaissance in person.

 

 

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