this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
15 points (89.5% liked)

College Football

820 readers
18 users here now

A community to discuss college football.

Find your team's community

Join the Fanaticus Discord

Vote in the community poll

/c/CFB Poll Top 25 Fanaticus
1. Texas Texas
2. Georgia Georgia
3. Tennessee Tennessee
4. Miami Miami
T-5. Alabama Alabama
T-5. Ohio State Ohio State
7. Oregon Oregon
8. Ole Miss Mississippi
9. USC USC
10. Missouri Missouri
11. Oklahoma Oklahoma
T-12. Kansas State Kansas State
T-12. Penn State Penn State
14. Oklahoma State Oklahoma State
15. Notre Dame Notre Dame
16. Northern Illinois Northern Illinois
17. Utah Utah
T-18. Illinois Illinois
T-18. Michigan Michigan
20. LSU Louisiana State
T-21. Louisville Louisville
T-21. UCF UCF
T-21. Washington State Washington State
24. Georgia Tech Georgia Tech
T-25. Maryland Maryland
T-25. UNLV UNLV

Check out our other sports communities!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] EmiliaTheHero@possumpat.io 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Your first two examples open up more opportunities for outplays. The opposing team can recognize that you have picked up on their patterns and then run fake-out plays to catch you off guard. Sign stealing just allows you to know exactly what the other team is about to do and there is no opportunity for them to fake you out. (Other than switching to a new set of signs, but learning signs is boring for the players and not entertaining for the audience).

To equate it to poker: Your first two examples are similar to learning one of your opponents tells. If you start to exploit their tell, they can start faking it to force you to fold or place a bad bet. Sign stealing is like taking a peak at their cards

[–] g0d0fm15ch13f@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Actually a fantastic analogy. And like I said, I don't much care for sign stealing, I think there are better ways to more reliably put yourself in a position to win. I just think it's funny that we expect and even encourage the runner on second to watch the signs but as soon as it's somebody with a camera it's against the rules.

[–] QHC@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I don't see any material difference, signs can be changed easier than formations.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago

Stealing signs themselves isn't against rules, and is overblown. There was a pre-covid pro game where Tony Romo called basically every play as an announcer.