In every professional sport, rule changes are bound to happen. For instance, the MLB changed their base size to increase stolen bases this past season. However, so very often will leagues change rules to something electronic, making games more fair or flowing better. In the NFL, there is Instant Replay, where coaches can look at the replay and decide whether to challenge the call on the field or to not challenge it. It’s the same with the MLB, where teams can choose to challenge a call on the field or to not challenge the call. A big part of this is replay review, which was not a very popular thing until a few years ago. Why was it added in?
Replay review is the ability to challenge, or review a call, and it would be replayed so the referee could decide whether to overturn the call or confirm the call. In the NFL, they require all scoring plays and turnovers to be reviewed to ensure that the calls are correct. In tennis, the replay system is used to review in or out calls on shots that are close to the line. In basketball, the system can be used to review foul calls. A lot of replay reviews happen when the game is closer and also when it’s a game of high amplitude, such as a playoff game.
Many of the major sports, such as baseball and basketball, are planning on making major rule changes which will take the “human element” out of the game. The human element is what makes the game interesting in terms of calls. It’s the element of human error or a human making a mistake. If these major sports leagues move to doing a completely automatic system, it eliminates the ability to get a call wrong and take the referees and the human element out of the game.
The major sport leagues are planning on making rule changes in the future. In the MLB, the league is deciding whether or not to take the umpires out of the game and completely automate ball and strike calls. A ball in baseball if the pitch is outside of the strike zone, which is from about the batter’s knees to the batter’s chest, which is dependent on how high the batter stands in their stance. A strike is a pitch that is in that zone. In the NFL, the league is deciding whether or not to get rid of the chain gang, and make it automated. The chain gang is the people that hold up the chains signifying the first down line and the line of scrimmage. If the chain gang was removed from the game, an automatic system would decide where the ball is and if the team got a first down. Finally, in the NBA they are considering adding technology to tell if a ball was going down the basket when it was blocked, which is considered goaltending and the team who shot the ball is awarded two points if the shot was inside the three point line, or three points if it was outside the line.
The rule changes could come as soon as next season for each league, which could mean the referees are going to become less and less important for the games. These would all be major rule changes, as these calls are very difficult to make for referees, but for the technology would not be too tough to make. An upside is that the calls that are made by the technology would be hard to argue against as it is an automated system. If these rule changes happen, the future of professional sports refereeing will be changed forever.
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