BCS officials to propose idea of instant replay in all bowl games

[DJRamFan]

July 29, 2005
CBS SportsLine.com wire reports




The Big Ten's instant replay system will be used in all 28 bowl games this season if the NCAA approves a plan agreed upon by Bowl Championship Series officials.

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"They are moving forward with the implementation of instant replay in bowl games," BCS spokesman Bob Burda said Friday.

The conference commissioners will present the idea to the NCAA in late September or early October. It is expected to gain approval, Burda said.

The Big Ten became the first conference to experiment with instant replay review of certain calls by on-field game officials in 2004, and the NCAA approved the use of it by all conferences in 2005.

Nine of 11 Division I-A conferences will use instant replay this season. Only the Western Athletic Conference and Sun Belt Conference have not approved a replay system.

A game must be televised for replay to be used and not all regular season games are televised. That's not a problem during bowl season, when all the games are on TV.

In the Big Ten's system, an official in the press box determines which calls to review and stops play when there is a questionable call.

The Big Ten's system drew mostly positive reviews from coaches because, unlike the NFL's system, the responsibility to review a play does not fall on the coaches.

Since all the conferences are using a replay system similar to the Big Ten's, BCS officials agreed to make that the standard for bowl games, Burda said.

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