By Bruce Feldman, Sam Khan Jr., Justin Williams and Ralph Russo
Power Four conferences have notified their schools that the coach-to-player helmet communication equipment they use during games needs an adjustment to address security concerns with the product before teams play again, according to multiple sources within Power Four conferences.
The fix requires hands-on work so schools are shipping equipment around the country, having technicians come to campus or — in at least one case — flying a staffer with the equipment to Atlanta to have it back before Saturday’s game.
The NCAA passed a rule earlier this year permitting schools to use coach-to-player communications during games, and all the FBS conferences are doing so this season. The Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences are all using a system from a company called GSC that the NFL uses for its helmet comms.
“We’re using a system that is not encrypted. And it’s the same company that provides the NFL. And the NFL’s is encypted. So I’m going, ‘Why the hell isn’t our system encrypted?’ Whose miss is that? Why would we even have thought about using a system that wasn’t encrypted?” said a Big 12 school administrator.
“We have been aware of the issue and have stayed in communication with GSC and our colleague conferences as well as our schools,” the SEC said in a statement. “We are not aware of any instances of the system being compromised during games. GSC has developed an update to resolve the issue and we have made our schools aware of their ability to update their systems at a time of their choosing.”
Messages were left with GSC seeking comment.
The system requires a secure radio frequency that only the team can access. It was discovered during the Texas A&M-Arkansas game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Sept. 28 that it was possible — though not easy — for the frequencies to be accessed by those who were not authorized with a scanner.
“There are concerns that others can listen in or access opponent (coach-to-player) comm,” a source at a Big 12 school told The Athletic.
All four conferences were notified, and the conferences then notified select football staffers, primarily equipment staffers, of the issue and ways to decrease the risk of access to game-day communications. Several athletic directors in the Big 12 and Big Ten told The Athletic that they either did not know about the security issues or the extent of them until this week.
“Maybe they told equipment managers, but it was underplayed,” a Big Ten athletic director said. “Maybe it got caught before something bad happened. Maybe it didn’t, who knows?”
That AD, and other sources in the Big Ten and Big 12, all said they did not believe nor have evidence that the teams were using the unsecure signal to gain an advantage. But they were surprised to find out the technology was not as secure as they believed and that the conference did not bring it to the attention of athletic directors sooner.
“It had been portrayed to us that this thing was all encrypted and secure and blah, blah, blah. Now we’re learning it wasn’t,” the first athletic director said. “If this was discovered a couple of weeks ago, there should have been every flag. I mean, after what happened with Michigan, if vulnerability is exposed, everybody should have dropped everything and fixed it immediately, and we’re just now fixing it.”
In a memo sent to its members about the software issues, Big Ten officials said that its legal counsel has denied access to the memo and has taken a position that its communication to schools is not subject to state open-records laws.
Instead, league officials allowed universities to provide individual statements regarding the communication issues.
“The Big Ten reached out to schools regarding the software update based on an abundance of caution because of something that came from another conference,” Iowa football spokesman Matt Weitzel told The Athletic. “Nothing happened in the Big Ten, and this was not mandatory.”
There have been no reports of stolen signals, Weitzel added.
At the conference’s directive, teams can choose whether to update their software on their own timetable or not at all. Iowa upgraded its software on Thursday and did so locally.
Michigan is under investigation by the NCAA for using an in-person scouting and video-recording scheme run by former recruiting staffer Connor Stalions to steal opponents’ play signals. The allegations came to light during Michigan’s run to a national championship last season and the Big Ten punished the school by suspending then-coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three games of the regular season.
A person involved in the Big 12’s process told The Athletic that the conference is not investigating any accusations of cheating related to the helmet communications nor has one been requested by any members.
Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt raised the issue earlier this week during a call with the conference’s athletic directors and commissioner Brett Yormark, according to sources familiar with that call. The Red Raiders lost at TCU on Saturday.
“Our football coaching staff and I were made aware yesterday of the player-to-coach helmet communication issues around the country. As with any other inquiry, we look forward to assisting the Big 12 Conference in its review process,” TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati said in a statement.
The Big 12 is prioritizing teams that play this weekend (10 of the 16 members) and hopes to have the equipment fixed and returned before Saturday, but it also instructed those teams to prepare a backup plan for play calls in case the fix isn’t completed in time. For this weekend’s game at No. 11 Iowa State, Texas Tech has switched its communication system to one provided by CoachComm, which uses a frequency “hopping system” that is more secure, a TTU source confirmed. CoachComm is utilized by Group of 5 conferences.
After years of debate and delay, the NCAA football rules committee in the spring passed rules allowing a speaker in the helmets of the quarterback and one on-field defensive player — signified by a green dot sticker on the back of the helmet — after a successful trial run in some bowl games.
Similar to the NFL’s helmet communication system, which first began in 1994, the speaker in players’ helmets cuts off with 15 seconds left on the 40-second play clock.
Someone working in stadium operations and hired by the hosting conference is responsible each game for cutting off the helmet communication on each play, silencing the offense and defense’s systems simultaneously. Most coaches — usually the offensive and defensive play callers or the head coach — have a one-way walkie talkie patched into their standard coaching headset. Only one coach can communicate with the quarterback or defensive player at a time, but the rest of the coaching staff can listen in.
(Photo: Chris Gardner / Getty)
