📡 NEWS: The Southeastern Conference will use a Centralized Video Review process for the 2020 SEC Softball Tournament

[SEC Sports]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Southeastern Conference will use a Centralized Video Review process for the 2020 SEC Softball Tournament, which will take place May 6-9 at the John and Ann Rhoads Stadium on the campus of the University of Alabama.

This will mark the first time a conference will use a centralized process as permitted by NCAA rules.

A Replay Official in the Conference Office will review plays during the tournament and will render decisions that will be communicated to the on-site umpire crew.

A similar system was implemented for both the 2018 and 2019 SEC Baseball Tournaments, in which video review was conducted from a replay booth in the press box. A replay official made decisions from the replay booth and communicated those decisions to the crew chief on the field.

This marks the fourth sport in which the SEC has implemented a collaborative or centralized replay system. The SEC successfully implemented a collaborative replay process in the sport of football in 2016, and the Conference secured NCAA approval to implement a collaborative instant replay process in men's basketball the following year. Baseball began using centralized video review for the 2018 SEC Tournament and then used it throughout the 2019 regular season in addition to the 2019 Tournament.

In 2019, the SEC was granted permission by the NCAA, on an experimental basis for the conference tournament only, to allow select plays that were permitted to be reviewed in softball with each head coach having one video challenge opportunity per game.

In 2020, the NCAA approved a national standard set of regulations for regular-season conference games and conference tournaments. Coaches will be allowed two video challenges per game, and Umpires will be allowed to initiate a video review beginning with the sixth inning.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Dang....moving up in the world.....

 

[bamachine]

They were the first conference to do replay, last season, IIRC.

 

[TerryP]

They were the first conference to do replay, last season, IIRC.

They did and it was arguable the replay cost Florida their game against UCLA (who eventually won the title) on a home plate call.

I don't know if the same scenarios are applicable this post season. Last year it read as follows:

The plays that can be reviewed include:

• Deciding if a batted ball called fair is fair or foul.
• Deciding if a batted ball called a ground rule double or home run is fair or foul.
• Deciding if a batted ball called foul that could result in a ground rule double or home run is fair or foul.
• Spectator interference.
• Deciding scoring plays at home plate inclusive of collisions (illegal and/or malicious slides), obstruction by a defensive player or time plays.
• Force/Tag Play Calls: Plays involving all runners acquiring the base before the defensive player's attempt to put the runner out at any base.
• Hit-by-Pitch Calls: Those plays for which there is a possibility that a pitched ball touches a batter or her clothing, which shall incorporate a review on whether the batter is inside or outside the batter's box if it is determined upon review that a pitched ball has touched a batter or her clothing.
• Placement of Runners: An umpire's placement of all runners (per the rules/case book) after any blocked ball call.