Georgia Basketball: SEC to begin centralizing the replay system
The SEC is looking to make official reviews of plays more efficient. How will that affect Georgia basketball?
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Apparently the SEC liked centralized replays enough for football that they’ve decided to extend them to basketball as well. No more officials at the scorers table reviewing the video. Instead, reviews will be handled by a replay official on site and a review team in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Personally, I think this is a good move. There’s now no chance of a crowd or other things in the environment to affect how officials see the footage on a small screen. An unbiased, secluded team in a room full of large monitors will now make these decisions.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said of the new review system, “our goal is to use the best-available resources to support our officiating programs and the use of technology has proven successful in football.”
In football, there didn’t appear to be any slowdowns in the replays from previous years so that isn’t a concern. All things considered, this will be a positive change for SEC basketball. The atmosphere in basketball games is so intimate, there’s no way that crowds don’t affect how officials judge replays at least a small percentage of the time.
This is no longer a worry for the teams in the SEC, including Georgia who probably lost one game this past season because of a clock error. While centralized replays would not have affected the clock, it may have affected the decision to end the game and not give Georgia a chance to get a shot off against Texas A&M.
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But only time and practice will tell if this change will be a good one for the SEC. It could end up having a negative affect. But in theory, and how the SEC reviewed plays for football, centralized replays will likely be a success for basketball.