With just over three minutes left in Saturday's game between Clemson and Georgia Tech, Clemson tight end Josh Sapp appeared to have reeled in a game-tying touchdown catch in the back of the end zone. Then the play was reviewed, and the television broadcast listened in on the full conversation between the on-field official and the ACC's replay command center, discussing whether Sapp briefly lost control after he stepped out of bounds.
They talked through the play and requested different camera angles. Georgia Tech fans in the stadium roared at a view that showed the ball moving. Within two minutes, the call of a touchdown was correctly overturned to an incomplete pass, and everyone understood how and why the decision was made.
This year the ACC has introduced a new level of replay transparency that should become the norm across the country. In a select (but increasing) number of ACC games, viewers at home can hear the full conversation between the official and the replay command center as they talk through a decision.
The early returns have been overwhelmingly positive. At a time when trust in officiating is wavering, this kind of transparency is good for the game. And not only can the strategy help build trust, it's more interesting television than having the game's play-by-play announcers debate it themselves. This is still the entertainment business.
Credit should go to the UFL/XFL, the on-and-off spring football league that has routinely showed replay review deliberations under the direction of Fox's Dean Blandino, who is also the NCAA's officiating director of replay. The spring league first implemented it in 2020 for TV entertainment purposes. Blandino told me this summer the feedback was all positive.
"There's no secrets," Blandino said. "This is what we saw. You come away with a greater understanding of what goes into it. Sometimes fans watch a game and have no idea, and you go to (conspiratorial) reasons. If you just can see and listen to it, it eliminates the concern that something else is going on and people are doing the best they can."
For years, I've asked college officials why they wouldn't add something similar. They gave me multiple reasons. One, the UFL/XFL didn't have as many games going on at the same time, so the action was easier to manage than a college conference's full slate. Fair enough. Two, there is concern that fan backlash will turn to the replay officials they now see on TV.
Late last year, the ACC started with a middle ground, letting the broadcast's rules expert listen in on replay conversations at select ACC games and relay what he heard to viewers. Feedback on that was positive enough that the ACC and ESPN announced they would expand it to Thursday night games and Saturday night ACC Network games for the 2025 season.
But Saturday's Clemson-Georgia Tech game was a noon ET kickoff on ESPN. The ACC told me that the league and ESPN are evaluating this feature week to week and have increased its use in response to the positive viewer feedback so far. That flexibility is a good sign.
The access would've been useful for the controversial overturned Hail Mary at the end of last year's Virginia Tech-Miami game. It would've been nice to hear why a potential LSU touchdown catch against Clemson in Week 1 was ruled incomplete. Instead, we only had the ESPN broadcast crew and the rules expert question the decision.
The ACC itself could've used more of this last week. ESPN reported Friday that a veteran league official quit over the timing and manner with which a replay review was initiated in the Syracuse-UConn game. It's still not clear what exactly happened and why the official felt upset enough to quit. Had the replay audio been available in that game, perhaps we would've heard that conversation. It's good to hear why something goes wrong, too.
During an earlier goal-line review during the Georgia Tech-Clemson game, the officials upheld a call but spent some extra time discussing the clock implications, which was important with under a minute to play in the half. That was a nice reminder of everything officials have to check on a play.
Transparency is good, especially in college football, which has more reviews than the NFL. Even officials themselves think instant replay may have expanded far beyond what it was first meant to be. "As much as I was a proponent for it in the NFL in 1999, I didn't anticipate how the monster would grow," Fox Sports analyst and former referee Mike Pereira said this summer. But there's no turning back.
The opening weeks of the 2025 season have shown letting fans hear the discussion could make a boring part of the game more interesting. It also may help tamp down some of the anger that comes with everything around officiating.
The Big Ten was the first college conference to add instant replay, in 2004. By the next year, every major Football Bowl Subdivision conference had added it. Will the ACC's move into live replay audio convince others to try it? It'd be nice.
Officiating will never be perfect -- and people will always get mad -- but showing the human side of the process may help more fans understand why that's the case.