MWC should get goal-line cameras

If the Mountain West is going to get in the replay business, it should bust out a few pennies and place cameras at angles pointing to the most important stripe in the game — the goal line.

If instant replay in the league proves anything at all, it is a dire need for the ultimate, definitive, conclusive standard of interpreting if a football held by an offensive player actually crossed the goal line. And everything should be done on such a play to make that call under review.

If that doesn't happen, the instant-replay system is flawed.

You have no further evidence than two local teams, BYU and Utah, and controversial goal-line plays involving TCU and CSU. In both cases no definitive camera exposure existed to help execute a proper play review.

The reason? Money.

Well, raise the price of hot dogs, or get a sponsor to hoist up a camera somewhere between field level to the highest stadium structure. And turn it on.

Goal-line cameras exist, but they're most commonly deployed when there is a TV game where producers add a moving camera on a small tractor unit and run it from end zone to end zone. But to do this costs dough.

So get rid of the tractor, hoist up a camera, something like we see in track meets at the finish line — most schools have the technology — and give us a replay. Every MWC school was given a budget of $5,000 to equip stadiums with review equipment including TiVos, DVD burners and video recorders. Why not add a few more bucks for goal-line cameras, either hand-held or welded to some stadium structure with a clear view?

To venture into the video-replay business and not have this feature is like selling I-pods with microscopic memory. It is shortsighted, ineffective and a frustrating product.

In actuality, there have been goal-line replay cameras in MWC games.

But they have not been by edict or design by the league. They have been placed by the arbitrary whim of a TV producer who chose how many cameras his broadcast would deploy.

For instance, during BYU's season opener with Boston College, a regional ABC TV game, the producer had eight cameras and two were on the goal line. But during the TCU game — and most MWC televised games — producers use just four cameras, two placed at the 20-yard lines and two in each end zone.

In the TCU game, when Frog star Aaron Rodgers appeared to fumble near or at the BYU goal line in overtime, no camera angle on the goal line existed for review. Same with the Utah situation three days ago.