The college football season gets underway this week, but there are some new rules and guidelines fans will be keeping an eye on, mostly centered around technology.
Bill Carollo, the Big Ten Conference's football officiating coordinator, said the three biggest changes fans will see are in-helmet communication between one coach and one player on each side of the ball during the game, the allowance of tablets or small video screens on the sidelines to watch the game unfold and strategize, and the addition of a two-minute warning at the end of each half.
Carollo added that the two-minute warning would not be an additional break during the game, but would simply replace one of the television timeouts already recorded in the commercial log, and all timing rules late in the game would be synchronized to change with the two-minute warning.
Additionally, Division III football officials will adopt what DI and D-II officials did last year and will not stop the clock on a first down gained if the play is stopped in bounds, and if a first down is gained during play in the final two minutes of each half, the clock will stop until the chains are ready to play.
Another highlight for Big Ten games is the conference's opening of a multi-million dollar Video Replay Review Center in Chicago. The center will serve as the central command center for all officiating reviews for Big Ten home games. The review center will feature 24 video stations, 18 dedicated to replays and six dedicated to medical observations.
Big Ten Conference football action begins Thursday night with Minnesota hosting North Carolina, Illinois hosting Eastern Illinois and Rutgers hosting Howard.
