One of the most peculiar storylines out of the Big 12 this week came on Wednesday when The Athletic reported that the conference had instructed its schools to return their in-helmet communication systems so that the league could address some concerns ahead of the Week 10 schedule.
After The Athletic’s report, ESPN’s Max Olsen added that Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt raised the issue with the Big 12, while also requesting an investigation from the Big 12 into whether or not it’s games against Baylor and TCU — both losses at home — were affected by the potential issue.
Less than 24 hours after that report, the Big 12 provided a statement saying that none of the conference’s games had been compromised due to the communications issues, according to their investigations.
“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 said, according to Chris Vannini. “The review showed that at no point was any Big 12 competition compromised.
“All Big 12 helmet communications programs now have the encryption update from GSC, and schools may use either CoachComm or GSC for coach-to-player communication at their discretion.”
Hocutt responded to the Big 12’s findings shortly after the statement went public, saying he’d accepted the Conference’s determinations.
“We have received a verbal report from the Big 12 Conference regarding our request to ensure the integrity of our recent football games,” Hocutt said. “This request was made after our head football coach received an audio recording on Tuesday, Oct. 29, containing clips from our in-game, coach-to-player communications.
“Although it’s been acknowledged that a third party provided at least two member institutions with additional information regarding the specific vulnerabilities of the coach-to-player communication system weeks before the remaining members became aware, Texas Tech accepts the conclusion of the Big 12’s review, which found no direct evidence that the integrity of any game was compromised.”
Texas Tech (5-3) is on the road this week and will face it’s most difficult test of the season thus far when it takes on No. 11 Iowa State on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. CT.
