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Report: Big 12 School Brings Up Issue with Data from Helmet Communication

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With the 2024 season marking the debut of coach-to-player helmet communication across college football, issues were inevitable. To that end, a report surfaced on Wednesday suggesting a big issue was discussed during the Big 12’s weekly conference.

According to ESPN’s sources, Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt said he learned the Red Raiders’  helmet communications were unencrypted and accessible to anyone with a scanner and knowledge of how to locate the frequencies. This insinuates that opponents would be able to access the data, providing them a big advantage.

Based on this situation, the Big 12 responded by instructing the 10 schools playing games this weekend to send their helmet communication devices back to GSC, the provider for all 68 Power 4 teams this year, for a software update that would provide encryption, per ESPN.

The conference also made it clear that the modules and cutoff switches will be updated and returned in time for the kickoff of Saturday’s games.

Even though nothing can be done about what has already occurred, Texas Tech has requested a report from the Big 12 on the data from their most recent games against against TCU and Baylor in an effort to ensure the integrity of the games. The Big 12 is accommodating that request.

“We’ve got to have a game whose integrity is not questionable in any way on a Saturday afternoon,” Hocutt told ESPN. “We owe it to the 120 young men on our football team to ensure that happens, that it’s a game of fair competition and the same set of rules are enforced.”

Texas Tech lost both games being reviewed, getting blown out 59-35 by Baylor and losing by just one point to TCU last week, 35-34.

While West Virginia is in the midst of their second and final bye week of the regular season and has not reported any issues with the data from their communications, Neal Brown has been open about problems throughout the season.

Earlier in the season, Brown said the wiring set up by the conference was not configured properly at the start of a game, causing the communication to not work in the first half.

On Monday, Brown mentioned quarterback Nicco Marchiol had trouble hearing him in the final minutes of their 31-26 win in Arizona, which is why there was confusion before took a knee and ran out the clock on the final play of the game.

The Mountaineers will chose the regular season with a trip to Lubbock, Texas to take on the Red Raiders on Nov. 30.

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