As those of you who have read the inside page know, the Cardinal men’s hockey team rallied from a 4-1 third-period deficit against Trinity to tie the game before falling 6-4. Those of you who were at the game or watched the webcast, however, know an additional detail: Wesleyan probably should have had at least five goals. And it’s situations like the one that occurred Tuesday that highlight the need for instant replay in Division III.
Here’s what happened, for those of you who didn’t see it. With the score tied 4-4 late in the third period, Wesleyan won an offensive-zone faceoff, and Tom Salah ’12 immediately fired a low wrister at the Trinity net. The puck appeared to sneak between the left post and the Trinity goalie’s pads, but all three officials were out of position (given that this was right after the faceoff) and none signaled a goal. (Trinity ended up scoring on an odd-man rush shortly thereafter and added an empty-netter for the winning margin.)

Obviously, that’s a difficult call for the officials to make, especially when it comes so quickly after a faceoff. This is college, not the NHL, and it’s not practical to have a goal judge behind each net to turn on the red light. But there is one similarity between the NHL and Division III—the existence of game film. And there is no reason for the officials not to use this film to make sure they get such calls right.

Let’s be fair. There are a lot of potential complications, chief among them the inevitable delays that would result while the officials reviewed the film. This isn’t as simple as the officials just skating over to the bench area and looking at a monitor—the games are generally filmed from the top row of the stands. There’s also no guarantee that the film would have the angle the officials need—I’m hard-pressed to think of a Division III school that has cameras inside the goal specifically for this purpose, for example (although even NHL referees don’t always have access to that angle, at least not when they’re playing in Pittsburgh). Still, I think most fans would rather put up with a five- or ten-minute delay to let the officials review film and ensure they’ve done everything in their power to get the call correct than have the refs make a snap judgment that may have at best a 50/50 chance of being correct and leave it at that.

And ice hockey is far from the only sport that could benefit from such instant replay. Let’s talk about basketball, which uses instant replay at the Division I level. The NCAA is requiring all Division III schools to install red backboard lights (which light up when the game clock expires) for the 2010-11 season and is encouraging schools to opt for the LED lights used by NBA and many D-I teams. The purpose of these lights is to help officials determine whether a player got a shot off in time, but without instant replay, their utility is severely limited. Even with LED lights, typically only the trail official will be in position to see both the shot and the backboard, and depending on where on the court the player is, this official will probably not have the best angle on the shot. For example, if a player is shooting from the top of the key, the trail official will be behind him or her, arguably the worst position for attempting to tell when a shot is released. Instant replay in basketball exists almost solely for situations such as this, and there is no reason it should not be used, regardless of the level of competition.

But wait, there’s more! What about volleyball? Particularly for matches in which students serve as the line judges, instant replay would be a welcome addition and would ensure in/out calls are correct. In a 3-2 match in which every set is decided by two points, it is crucial that every such call be accurate, and the best way to ensure that is through the use of replay. And of course, there’s football. A late blown call likely cost the Cardinal gridmen a win over Amherst in 2008, and that’s obviously far from the first such occurrence. Had the officials reviewed the game tape (filmed by yours truly), as the coaches did after the game, the call would have been reversed, potentially giving Wesleyan its second straight win after a 0-3 start and changing the direction of the Cardinals’ season (Wesleyan finished 1-7 that year).

The ultimate goal for officials at every level should be to get the call correct, by any means necessary. Division III schools already have the requisite equipment for instant replay, and now it’s time for the NCAA to put it to good use. Baseball fans likely recall the uproar when MLB recently implemented instant replay for home run and fair/foul calls, but I’d have to say that’s worked out pretty well. I can’t think of any reason D-III instant replay wouldn’t have the same effect.