An internal review by the Big 12 regarding the security of football coach-to-player in-helmet communications equipment found no evidence of impropriety in games this season, the conference said Thursday in a statement.
Texas Tech’s Kirby Hocutt raised the issue Tuesday on a conference call of Big 12 athletics directors, telling colleagues that the Texas Tech football team was among many unaware they’d been using unencrypted devices furnished by GSC, the provider to all 68 power-conference teams this season. The in-game communications could have been accessible to anyone with a scanner and the technical know-how to find the frequencies.
Tech senior associate athletics director Robert Giovannetti told the Avalanche-Journal that Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire was alerted to the vulnerability Tuesday by a frequency coordinator whom he declined to otherwise identify.
“Following the industry-wide concerns surrounding helmet communications, the Big 12 conducted a review of conference games and helmet communications processes to address any issues member institutions raised regarding this matter,” the Big 12’s statement said. “The review showed that at no point was any Big 12 competition compromised.”
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All schools were asked to return the equipment this week to GSC for software updates with the expectation they would be ready for use again Saturday.
“All Big 12 helmet communications programs now have the encryption update from GSC,” the Big 12 statement said, “and schools may use either CoachComm or GSC for coach-to-player communication at their discretion.”
The Red Raiders this season have used CoachComm for communication among its coaches and GSC for coach-to-player talks between plays. The NCAA in April approved use of in-helmet communication for the first time. One offensive player and one defensive player at a time on each team may use the devices on the field with the communication shut off with 15 seconds remaining on the play clock.
According to ESPN, the GSC system vulnerability was discovered by a frequency coordinator setting up for the Sept. 28 Texas A&M-Arkansas game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The coordinator notified the Southeastern Conference, as well as Baylor and TCU, who forwarded the information to the conference.
Tech played Baylor and TCU the past two weeks, losing to both.
Giovannetti stressed on Wednesday that Hocutt and Tech were making no accusations against other programs, but wanted to bring the subject to light to make certain calls could not be compromised.
