AI - The Future of Officiating

[75thru79]

I was just reading an article on the internet that was basically reporting on one of Dabo's press conferences where he was railing about officiating and how it lacked accountability. I got to thinking and I believe AI is going to find it's way into college football in the not too distant future.

Let's take the video reviews. It takes a team of people about 5 to 10 minutes to verify the call. I believe AI could do the whole review and probably in just a minute or so. The technology is going to get better and better. I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually came down to an AI scheme that looks at the every play, for penalties, ball spots, etc., and do it within the flow of the game. What say you?

 

[BamaNation]

 

[Tidewater]

Major League Baseball to judge balls and strikes (and maybe other plays, I don't know).
Balls and strikes are relatively straightforward: batter stands in the batter's box, pitcher throws a pitch, a strike is a ball that passes over the plate at an altitude between the batter's knees and his the mid-point between the top of the knees and the belt (I may have that definition wrong, if so, baseball aficionados please correct me).
Judging a pitch or ball is a very public thing. We can have aa very clear view of the ball as it crosses the plate.

Now in football, there are an infinite number of judgment calls: Did this player carry the ball over the goal line? Did this receiver get a foot down while in possession of the ball? and the difficult one, "Did this player in the middle of a pile of players lose control of the ball before he was down or forward progress had stopped?" Maybe no camera will have a view of that. Or a player may block the camera's view. Anyway, a lot more variables in judging footnall plays.

 

[Tug Tide]

I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sort of chip technology added to the ball in the coming years.
Especially for spot reviews and “Crossing the plane” calls

 

[mikeua69]

I wonder when AI will start calling plays

 

[TideEngineer08]

Any human ref ought to be able to call a personal foul for body slamming a WR at the end of a play.

Or DPI when the DB plows over the WR before the ball gets there.

And this is why the robots will eventually replace the referees.

 

[Elefantman]

I can hear the promo now:

"Replay AI brought to you by ESPN Bet dot com"

What could go wrong????

 

[75thru79]

I wonder when AI will start calling plays

Who says it hasn't already? I've seen plenty of the guys on the sidelines with iPads and laptops. I don't think it would be hard to have AI script play calls. I would not be the least bit surprised to find out there are people actively working on that.

 

[denver]

Football....soccer here...has Video Assisted Refs VAR...its awful. Initially is was to overturn obvious errors or missed calls...but its turned into reviews that take away the joy of goals scored as we wait for the VAR decision...and its black and white..offside if you are even 1 inch ahead of the ball etc...imagine every play being subjected to that...there is always a hold, maybe a false start by a millisecond etc...maybe somewhere in between would be good..a challenge on calls like the DPI on Horton for the pick 6..or the FG hurdle..obvious misses that could be challenged and are game affecting. I'm torn between wanting better refs and letting this Genie out of the bottle and what it may become

 

[mlh]

Who says it hasn't already? I've seen plenty of the guys on the sidelines with iPads and laptops. I don't think it would be hard to have AI script play calls. I would not be the least bit surprised to find out there are people actively working on that.

No doubt.

 

[BamaFan6462]

Not sure if that fixes all of the problems but we’re well past the point where more technology is needed to make sure of spots, etc.

 

[BamaFan6462]

Any human ref ought to be able to call a personal foul for body slamming a WR at the end of a play.

Or DPI when the DB plows over the WR before the ball gets there.

And this is why the robots will eventually replace the referees.

DeBoer should’ve been in their face after that stunt. I’d like to hear his explanation of why he didn’t call them out on that play. Easy 15 yard penalty if your coach is willing to push for it. After Williamson’s crew got fired I doubt they want any extra complaints or scrutiny now.

 

[SeventhHeavenRanch7777@gm]

I was just reading an article on the internet that was basically reporting on one of Dabo's press conferences where he was railing about officiating and how it lacked accountability. I got to thinking and I believe AI is going to find it's way into college football in the not too distant future.

Let's take the video reviews. It takes a team of people about 5 to 10 minutes to verify the call. I believe AI could do the whole review and probably in just a minute or so. The technology is going to get better and better. I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually came down to an AI scheme that looks at the every play, for penalties, ball spots, etc., and do it within the flow of the game. What say you?

Everyone wants AI until it takes their job. AI will take 30 percent of the jobs world wide very soon.

 

[CB4]

Just my opinion but I don’t believe rational fans across college football are expecting officials to be perfect. Human error is and always will be part of the game.

What do I want? I just want competency. It is beyond time that FBS went to full time professional officials. There is too much money at stake now to have some of these clowns on the field.

 

[BamaFan6462]

Just my opinion but I don’t believe rational fans across college football are expect officials to be perfect. Human error is and always will be part of the game.

What do I want? I just want competency. It is beyond time that FBS went to full time professional officials. There is too much money at stake now to have some of these clowns on the field.

And that’s where I’m at on this subject. Some plays happen so fast it’s understandable that an official could make a mistake and that’s where more technology could help. In my experience, referees reflexively defend each other no matter what. I get it, but over time that’s not helped them do their job better or helped their reputation. If there are ways to help them do their jobs better and reduce errors there’s no good reason not to take advantage of it.

 

[bamamc1]

Who says it hasn't already? I've seen plenty of the guys on the sidelines with iPads and laptops. I don't think it would be hard to have AI script play calls. I would not be the least bit surprised to find out there are people actively working on that.

It would be hard for the barn to fire AI.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

Football....soccer here...has Video Assisted Refs VAR...its awful. Initially is was to overturn obvious errors or missed calls...but its turned into reviews that take away the joy of goals scored as we wait for the VAR decision...and its black and white..offside if you are even 1 inch ahead of the ball etc...imagine every play being subjected to that...there is always a hold, maybe a false start by a millisecond etc...maybe somewhere in between would be good..a challenge on calls like the DPI on Horton for the pick 6..or the FG hurdle..obvious misses that could be challenged and are game affecting. I'm torn between wanting better refs and letting this Genie out of the bottle and what it may become

Yup. Completely agree. I'm okay if you use a chip for spotting a ball but anymore than that sounds like a horrible idea for a sport as subjective and complicated as football.