Until this week, the first year of coach-to-player helmet communication in college football has been considered an almost universal success.
But serious questions have been raised about the integrity of those communications after it was revealed the vendor to the Power Four conferences has been using unencrypted frequencies that could be hacked by anyone knowledgable about the use of scan technology, multiple sources told 247Sports on Wednesday.
As a result, the Big 12, Big Ten, ACC and SEC have informed their member schools that GSC, the Wahoo, Neb.-based company providing helmet communication to the Power Four, has a software update that should ensure encryption protecting the privacy of play calls being delivered from coach to player, sources said.
“We have been aware of the issue and have stayed in communication with GSC and our colleague conferences as well as our schools,” SEC spokesman Chuck Dunlap told 247Sports. “We are not aware of any instances of the system being compromised during games. GSC has developed an update to resolve the issue, and we have made our schools aware of their ability to update their systems at a time of their choosing.”
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte told 247Sports he wasn’t aware of any issues during games in which the coach-to-player communication has been compromised.
Texas Tech has asked the Big 12 to investigate the possibility of its coach-to-player communication being compromised in its last two games against Baylor and TCU, league sources told 247Sports.
In those games, Baylor beat Texas Tech 59-35 in Lubbock, and TCU came back from a 31-14 third-quarter deficit to beat the Red Raiders 35-34 in Fort Worth. The Big 12 is honoring the request, a source said.
On Wednesday, Texas Tech purchased $70,000 worth of encrypted coach-to-player communication equipment from CoachComm, a competitor of GSC, for the Red Raiders’ game at No. 11 Iowa State on Saturday.
Repeated messages left by 247Sports with GSC seeking comment weren’t immediately returned. GSC also provides coach-to-player communication to the NFL.
According to multiple sources in the Big 12 and SEC, a frequency operator at AT&T Stadium preparing for the Texas A&M-Arkansas game on Sept. 28 notified the SEC that coach-to-player communication was occurring on unencrypted frequencies vulnerable to scan technologies.
In the Big 12, equipment managers at each school were told of the situation, but not the athletic directors, sources said.
Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt raised concern about the matter on an athletic director’s conference call on Tuesday, sources said. TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati told ESPN he wasn’t aware of the matter until Tuesday.
According to sources in the Big 12, schools have been ordered to return their equipment to GSC, so the company can reprogram the coach-to-player communication to ensure it’s encrypted.
The Athletic was the first to report about the Big 12’s recall of the GSC equipment.
Sources said the Big 12 has told all of its schools to have a backup plan for its coach-to-player communication for games this weekend in case GSC can’t reprogram its equipment by game time.
Big 12 schools were authorized to use “third-party” coach-to-player communication as part of that backup plan, a league source said, clearing the way for Texas Tech to purchase its equipment from CoachComm.
Chris Hummer of 247Sports contributed to this report
