A new aspect of college football competition this season has been the addition of coach-to-player headset communications.
Coaches may speak directly to certain players, usually quarterbacks, through helmet speakers up until 15 seconds left on the play clock. Those were implemented after an NCAA investigation into former Michigan staffer Connor Stallions and alleged sign stealing.
However, a report from ESPN Wednesday has some programs concerned the new tech isn’t secure enough to prevent potential cheating.
Max Olsen reported Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt’s revelation that the helmet communications for Power Four programs have been transmitting on unencrypted frequencies.
That means if some bad actor has a scanner and knowledge of how to search for the frequencies, one could listen in on coaches communicating to players on the field in real time.
As bad as that sounds, it actually isn’t as simple or practical for the vulnerability to be exploited.
Olsen quotes a Big 12 chief of staff as downplaying the potential exposure as trivial.
“There’s no real advantage,” they argued. “One, you’re speaking a different language. Two, if you think you’d be able to enact in real time what they say and try to do it on the field, you’re delusional. You’re just being your stereotypical paranoid football coach. You can’t relay it to the kids fast enough.”
It should be noted the manufacturer of the communication devices, GSC, has requested all of them to be returned for security updates, per ESPN.
But regardless of whatever measures are added, it doesn’t appear as if the integrity of any games has been compromised as a result of the security lapse.
The NCAA has promised Texas Tech and other programs a comprehensive report into the signal exposure and any collateral impacts discovered, per ESPN.
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