After a full year of our big new scoreboards, some of the problems are more glaring than ever.
Stadium sound = improved. It couldn't be anything other than an improvement, over the 1950's technology that previously existed until 2008, and the "pardon our dust" inadequacies in '08 and '09.
Video quality = nice. They are big boards. We have two. Nice.
The rest leaves a lot to be desired. I am beginning to have a hard time believeing it is just me, when I find the stats column so hard to read; I used to think that I was just so used to the old boards with analog-lit digits, that it was just old habits. After a year-plus, I no longer think so. They really ought to be thinking about a redesign.
Which brings me to my big gripe - video replays of football action. They are about as bad as they could possibly be. I don't know how much of it is deliberately bad; some of it certainly is. The specific complaints:
- No replay of plays under review or controversial calls. This is "deliberate" insofar as it is in large part B1G policy. A completely crappy policy that ought to be reviewed and promptly reversed. (If anybody can find the citation to the official conference rule, I'd be grateful.) The SEC (whose refs are 1000% better than B1G refs) has reversed its old policy on the subject: http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/08/27/sec-to-show-more-replays-on-stadium-video-boards/
- Replay that is essentially a kind of isolation-view on individual players. Lots of smart football fans complain about standard television video, which never shows all 22 players on the field, as is the case with game film used by coaches. Michigan Stadium video replay actually goes in the opposite direction, with video that shows almost nothing more than one player carrying the football. A nice Wall Street Journal writeup on "All-22 film": http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203716204577015903150731054.html
- Inefficient use of the boards. Our new scoreboards, all-digital of course, were supposed to be a big advantage in that they could show monster-sized HD video and then switch back to score-and-stats at the click of a mouse. And so they do. If it were up to me, I'd do more split-screen views, with the numbers column remaining up and part of the screen doing video and replay. You can save the monster-view for big replays on disputed calls, etc.
I thought there was no replay of reviewed playes either but they absolutely showed Devin's "catch" (and from the stadium replays it looked like a catch) while it was being reviewed.
"I just hope Tressel doesn't fire me"
-Gordon Gee