Upon further review: Big Ten officiating command center coming
The Big Ten first studied having a centralized replay center entering the 2016 season, but it wasn’t implemented. Now, signs point to an officiating command center being on the way for this coming season.
“I think that work is being done to make that happen,” said Purdue AD Mike Bobinski. “I don’t think our standalone facility will be ready for this fall. But we do have an alternate physical site where we can operate a central replay situation.”
The Big Ten is the only Power Five conference that doesn’t have an officiating command center, which would consult with on-site officials for in-game replay reviews.
“You just want them to get the calls right,” said a Big Ten head coach. “Don’t take forever to make it happen, you know? So, seems like to have a centralized spot where you have the same set eyes on everything is probably the way to go. So, we felt good about that.”
Bobinski says Big Ten senior director for football operations A.J. Edds and Big Ten coordinator of football officials Bill Corollo are the central figures in the set up of the command center.
“Our intention is to move towards a centralized replay situation,” said Bobinski. “Its time has come here, in our opinion. There still will be someone on site and a set of eyes looking at replay, but there’ll be that collaboration between the command center and the on-field official.”
The Jim Delany administration was reticent about being involved in reviewing calls. Why? It’s believed it didn’t want the league office to be accused of making decisions in favor of one school over another. Finding trusted decision-makers to man the command center is a big point of concern. Who will it be?
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“Not for sure,” said the Big Ten head coach. “That was a big question, but there’s gonna be a select group, it sounds like, that’s just gonna help us. It’ll be consistent. That’s what you want. You want the same set of eyes making decisions. I think that’s a big thing. They didn’t get into specifics, but it’s gonna be, I’m assuming, experienced guys that understand everything that needs to be done and how it needs to be done. So, that wasn’t answered, no.”
Plans are for the command center to be in Chicago, home base of the Big Ten. But space isn’t sufficient at the league’s headquarters in suburban Chicago near O’Hare Airport. Rather, an alternative facility will need to be constructed in Chicago. Until then, the conference has other plans.
“Ultimately, it will not be at the (league) office but in Chicago and in a separate building,” said Bobinski. “I don’t think there was enough physical capacity in the building at the Big Ten office to do it right on site. That would have been ideal, but the study indicated there wasn’t enough real estate and just square footage available to do it.”
The alternative?
“I think it’s in Pittsburgh at one of our technology partner’s offices,” said Bobinski. “They’ve got a set up there where they’ve got all the equipment. They’ve got a room that can house enough capacity and the staff necessary to do this. I can’t recall exactly whose space that is.”
Added the Big Ten head coach: “Don’t know exactly the logistics. I think everybody agreed you’d like to have it in Chicago eventually, but did not feel that was able to be done on such short notice. So, that’s more of a long-term goal. I don’t know the details of that. But, I do know Pittsburgh was the city that was mentioned, which seemed kind of odd, but that’s what they said.”
