Power outage forces Florida State-SMU game to proceed with limited technology
The ACC Week 1 matchup began more than an hour late in reduced lighting, with officials managing time on the field after several stadium systems went offline.
Florida State and SMU’s ACC Week 1 game began at 9:15 p.m. ET after a power outage delayed the scheduled 7:30 p.m. start by more than an hour.
The game proceeded with reduced lighting and without several systems normally used to manage and broadcast college football. According to Yahoo Sports, video replay, helmet coach-to-player communications, the PA announcer, videoboard and referee microphones were unavailable.
The stadium’s scoreboard clock was also not operating. Officials kept time on the field and used signals to communicate the status of the play clock and game clock to players and coaches.
The report said some systems could return if more power was restored, but it did not confirm whether that occurred. The outage left the ACC matchup operating under conditions that placed more responsibility for communication and timekeeping on officials.
