The biggest story in college football today has absolutely nothing to do with any game on the schedule.
Instead, it’s the NCAA’s investigation into the Michigan Wolverines for allegedly stealing signs from opposing teams. An allegation that head coach Jim Harbaugh fervently denies.
But the allegations have raised several questions from fans.
Chief among them: “why don’t college football teams uses radios in their helmets the way NFL teams do?”That’s a good question.
Thankfully, Chris Vannini of The Athletic can provide us with an answer.
As it turns out, it’s a matter of safety.
Most college coaches want to install radios in helmets to communicate with players. But in order to do so, teams would need to modify the structure of the helmet itself.
This, as Vannini explains, is where the main problem arises.
“The NFL has used helmet communication technology since 1994, but the advances have not come to college football due to a combination of factors including helmet liability, costs and sign-stealing coaches who don’t want it,” Vannini writes. “The largest hurdle is the helmet manufacturers, as any third-party adjustment to helmets could shift liability in a lawsuit over head injuries, for example, even if the adjusted helmet still passes the industry standard safety test. The NFL is a different situation, with its own helmet contracts and agreements with the players’ union.”
So, should a player get injured currently, helmet companies could be held liability for the safety of their product. But if that product is altered in any way, that liability goes out the door.
That opens up schools to potential litigation that they almost certainly don’t want to face.
Could that change in the future? Of course.
Might the Michigan scandal provide the impetus for that change? It seems possible.
But for now, schools are going to have to get a little more creative with their signs.
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