SkyCoach Instant Replay Technology: Getting the call right in MIAA football
The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association was a Division II leader in 2022 making a push to the NCAA to allow the conference to experiment with instant replay for football.
Less than a month before that season kicked off, the MIAA got the final approval needed to move forward with SkyCoach’s affordable and easy to use technology in games.
The conference wanted to bring in the SkyCoach technology to assist with player safety and targeting calls, which automatically results in an official looking at the replay. However, during the pilot testing season, one of the coaches’ challenges changed the outcome of a game and showed that a reliable replay system could be beneficial for numerous reasons.
During the Missouri Southern vs. Fort Hays contest in Week 4 of the 2022 season, Missouri Southern coach Atiba Bradley successfully challenged an important call on the field.
“We were in a back-and-forth ball game with Fort Hays and they were driving with a little bit of time left in the fourth quarter,” said Bradley. “They broke off a big run. One of our linebackers, Richard Jordan Jr., hawked him down and punched it loose.”
The call on the field was that the Fort Hays player was down prior to the ball coming out, which meant the Tigers would have great field position to kick the game-winning field goal.
Bradley challenged the call and the head official went over to the sideline the SkyCoach technology to watch the replay on an iPad.
“It was clear and that’s what our official saw. The ball was out, and the runner was not down. The call was overturned,” said MIAA commissioner Mike Racy.
An example photo of a head official looking at a replay during a game.
After the call was overturned, Missouri Southern kneeled out the clock to secure the victory, 25-24.
“There’s a lot of things that go into whether a team is going to win a game or lose a game, but these are big calls; possession calls,” Racy said.
Racy added: “Once we found SkyCoach, a technology that was simple to use, reliable and very customer friendly—a system that we could afford, we got approval from the NCAA to experiment, and ultimately, the NCAA agreed to change the rule.
“(SkyCoach) is a great company that stands behind their product and they’re there to help.”
Since the partnership with SkyCoach has been so successful for the MIAA football teams, the conference is also testing instant replay technology as part of the pilot program during the 2024 baseball and softball seasons.
