Alabama High School Football Getting Instant Replay

On Tuesday, the Alabama High School Athletic Association board announced that they would be implementing instant replay to all high school football games. After being granted permission by the National Federation of High School Associations, who does not allow instant replay with the exception of state championship games in some states, AHSAA said that use of replay will be a three year trial period and that they would be partnering with DVsport, which specializes in instant replay and will provide the equipment needed to the schools. According to AHSAA, each school will receive equipment and one camera for a minimal cost. Additional cameras can be purchased by the schools to help improve replay at a cost that the individual school will incur. Replays will be initiated by a coach’s challenge, similar to the NFL, however there will be limited plays that will be reviewable. Penalties will not be reviewable, but plays involving fumbles, catches, players stepping out of bounds, and whether a player broke the plane of the goal line for a touchdown are some of the plays to be reviewable. Each coach will have two timeouts and like the NFL rule, if a coach uses a challenge and loses the challenge, he will lose a timeout and will have one remaining challenge and if he wins the challenge, he will still have two challenges. When asked about using the replay system, AHSSA’s Director of Officials, Mark Jones stated, “It’s an experiment. We’ll find things we may need to tweak or do better.”