Amid questions about the integrity of coach-player communication systems used in Power 4 college football games this season, the Big 12 has reportedly taken steps to provide encryption and increased protection.

Bruce Feldman, Sam Khan Jr., Justin Williams and Ralph Russo of Athletics and ESPN Max Olson reported Wednesday that the conference had asked its teams to send their headset communications devices to GSC, which is the company that provides the system, to receive a software update that encrypts the communication.

Until now, communications have taken place over unencrypted frequencies, meaning they could have been accessible to anyone with a scanner and the ability to locate the correct frequencies.

Olson reported that Texas Tech specifically requested a report from the Big 12 regarding the games against TCU and Baylor, out of fear they might have been compromised.

The Red Raiders lost both games.

“We need to have a game that is in no way questionable in its integrity on a Saturday afternoon,” Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt said. “We owe it to the 120 young men on our football team to ensure that this happens, that it is a fair competitive game and that the same rules are applied.”

The integrity of college football games was a major topic of discussion last season when Michigan won the national championship despite a sign-stealing controversy that is still under investigation by the NCAA and could lead to sanctions.

As a result of this scandal, this is the first season where communications between coaches and players with headsets and tablets are permitted in FBS, although such practices occur in the NFL.

However, as Olson noted, a frequency coordinator set up for a September game between Arkansas and Texas A&M discovered that communications were not encrypted and notified the SEC.

“We were aware of the issue and remained in communication with GSC and our fellow conferences as well as our schools,” the SEC said Wednesday in a statement. “We are not aware of any instances of system compromise during matches. GSC has developed an update to address the issue and we have informed our schools of their ability to update their systems at a time of their choosing. “

As for the Big Ten and ACC, there have been no reported issues or teams raising concerns with conference offices.

It’s worth noting that one Big 12 chief of staff wasn’t particularly concerned and said, “There’s no real upside.” First, you speak a different language. Second, if you think you can implement what you’re doing in real time. they say and try to do it on the field, you’re just a stereotypical paranoid football coach, you can’t pass it on to the kids fast enough.

Olson called creating an advantage by accessing these real-time communications “a much more difficult task than the theft of secondary signals” that previously made headlines.

The Big 12 expects the software updates to be in place and returned to teams in time for Saturday’s slate of games.