The Big 12 will offer a look inside its replay center for conference football games beginning this week, CBS Sports’ Richard Johnson confirms, delivering live video during reviews on its broadcasts. The league conducted a soft run during last week’s game between Houston and Colorado and is prepared to roll out the feature on its ESPN, Fox and TNT broadcasts starting in Week 4.
Live review look-ins began this season in the ACC, which unveiled the feature in select games during the first three weeks of the season. The Big 12 will be the second conference to pull back the curtain on its review process, delivering a new layer of transparency. Unlike the ACC, however, it will only offer video from the command center, according to Brett McMurphy. The ACC pairs its video with an audio feed between the replay officials and referee, which the Big 12 plans to do next season.
No. 16 Utah and No. 17 Texas Tech square off at noon ET on Saturday in the biggest Big 12 game of the week, marking a high-profile debut for the new broadcast feature. Oklahoma State hosts Tulsa on Friday, but with American Conference officials assigned to that nonconference matchup, there will be no live replay center look-ins.
Last week’s matchup between Clemson and Georgia Tech put the ACC’s process on full display and added a unique, well-received wrinkle to the broadcast of one of the biggest games on the Week 3 college football schedule. Viewers got an inside look into the decisions on game-defining reviews as the Yellow Jackets pulled off a major upset.
The ACC’s review process was under the microscope in Week 2. In a game that did not feature the live command center feed, replay officials and game officials struggled faced a miscommunication that, reportedly, ultimately led to longtime referee Gary Patterson stepping away from his job.
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