If you’ve been watching any college football game this year so far, you’ll notice that officials are not using their traditional whistles.
Instead, they have electronic whistles, which are either held by the referees or attached to their belts. However, they’re already causing problems.
Even in stadiums with significantly-reduced capacities, players are having trouble hearing them. In Saturday afternoon’s Oklahoma State-Tulsa game, for example, players were continuing to go through plays even after officials had attempted to blow the play dead.
ESPN’s broadcast crew spent time criticizing the whistles, and plenty of people on Twitter were also critical of the new rule. Here’s some of the reaction thus far:
The electronic whistles are horrible in CFB. The delay/lack of whistles I’ve seen already are dangerous.
Please allow the socially distant “White Hat” to have a traditional whistle by next weekend. #SEC #CFB
— Jim Dunaway (@jimdunaway) September 19, 2020
After potential slow whistle in OK St v Tulsa.
Wife: Electronic whistle?
Me: Yeah. They press buttons so they aren't blowing whistles b/c COVID. It's slower.
Her: They are worried about Refs blowing whistles when you have 22 athletes huffing & puffing on the line?#GoodPoint
— Mr. Crow (@Crowesq) September 19, 2020
Among the dumbest things in this pandemic are electronic in #CollegeFootball.
Use a freaking whistle.
— Robbie G. ™ (@RobJob76) September 19, 2020
Listen, the electronic whistles aren’t working. Go back to the regular whistle
— Teague Burkes (@Primetime21tb) September 19, 2020
Seems crazy that nobody can make an electronic whistle that the players can hear
— Reedweber.eth (@Reed_Weber) September 19, 2020
These electronic whistles are going to cause a serious injury at some point. If players cannot hear the whistle with no fans or limited fans, that’s a big problem.
— Jeff Mathheus ??? (@Jeff_Mathheus) September 19, 2020
What can't the NCAA come up with an electronic whistle loud enough to be heard by players on the field……..Particularly when there's almost no one in the stands.?♂️
— fprefect (@fprefect6) September 19, 2020
“They got to figure out this whistle issue” – simple, go back to normal whistles. The electronic aren’t working. They’re not sharing whistles. They’re not blowing their whistles in the faces of others.
— Danielle Dwyer (@DanielleDwyerTV) September 19, 2020
As long as refs aren’t sharing whistles and don’t blow them in players’ faces, it seems silly that they can’t have the traditional whistles. Clearly the electronic ones aren’t working, so we’ll see what happens with this situation moving forward.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
