Unlimited challenges with penalties for losing

[AQNOR]

I was watching a re-broadcast of game 1 of the Panthers/Golden Knights Stanley Cup Finals yesterday.  In the final period, I noticed the Panthers challenged a call and lost.  The Golden Knights immediately got a power play.   I checked and hockey has unlimited challenges but the other team gets a power play if you challenge and lose.

It got me thinking.  They should do the same in football, baseball and basketball.   Allow each team to have unlimited challenges but the penalties for losing a challenge could be something like these:

Football- Five yard penalty

Basketball- Team technical foul (two shots and possession)

Baseball- Runner on first

[Pappy13]

I was watching a re-broadcast of game 1 of the Panthers/Golden Knights Stanley Cup Finals yesterday.  In the final period, I noticed the Panthers challenged a call and lost.  The Golden Knights immediately got a power play.   I checked and hockey has unlimited challenges but the other team gets a power play if you challenge and lose.

It got me thinking.  They should do the same in football, baseball and basketball.   Allow each team to have unlimited challenges but the penalties for losing a challenge could be something like these:

Football- Five yard penalty

Basketball- Team technical foul (two shots and possession)

Baseball- Runner on first

Well first off, it would have to be more than a 5 yard penalty as that's not stopping anyone from throwing a red flag anytime they want. A power play is way more of a deterrent than a 5 yard penalty.  Maybe 15 yards? Even that seems a little light compared to a power play which has about a 50/50 chance of being a goal on some teams. Personally I like the challenge flag the way it is.

On a side note that was a really dumb challenge Miami had yesterday. Who's call was that?

[Spider-Dan]

I think that's much worse than the status quo, at least in football and basketball.  The downside of review is ostensibly that it slows down the game, so requiring a team to give up a timeout if they are wrong on the challenge seems like the perfect tradeoff.

The NFL, in particular, feels like it's in a really good spot for review at the moment.  Review isn't perfect, but it feels like they've pretty much eliminated the "huge questionable play that no one can do anything about" scenarios.

[Dave Gray]

I can't see penalizing for missed challenges.  I can see not counting your challenges if you get them right, maybe.

I don't want anything to prolong these games.  The challenges take too long as it is.

[pondwater]

I wouldn't be opposed to allowing challenges to PI calls or non calls

[Brian Fein]

So if you're on the goal line you can just challenge any play without repercussions?

[Spider-Dan]

A half-the-distance penalty actually does make a big difference as you get closer and closer to the goal line, which is why you don't see defenses selling out to time the snap (disregarding the possibility of an offsides) when the ball is at the 1.  At anything less than 1 foot (i.e. two defensive penalties from the 1), a QB sneak is basically impossible to stop.

[MaineDolFan]

I'm in the opposite direction.  I would love to see instant replay completely eliminated from the game.  I feel the only reason it was brought in is gambling.  If you've got the mortgage riding on the Nets - Mavericks game, well, you better hope the zerbras are on their game as well (and not on the take).  The game is played by humans, put the officiating back into human hands / eyes as well.

[Spider-Dan]

I would like to see instant replay eliminated, too...

...the same day dozens of sensors are put in the ball, in the field, in the pads, just everywhere and instant replay is completely redundant.

Human error is certainly part of the game, but that should be the players' human error, not the refs, the stadium crew, etc.

[Brian Fein]

instant replay is a good way to keep the officiating bias out of the game.  It enables the refs to be on the up-and-up and no shenanigans with officiating.  But, if there were, say, AI officiating where a computer watched the game from a thousand cameras and made calls, that might be really intriguing...

[Dave Gray]

I'd like to see the referee process be part of the product, instead of a surprise we get when the guy walks back to the microphone.  It would be good to see their process and I think it would benefit fans, both to understand the call and to not think everything is rigged.  Also, it would probably be faster and more entertaining, rather than listen to the booth guys speculate.

[Denver2]

I'm in the opposite direction.  I would love to see instant replay completely eliminated from the game.  I feel the only reason it was brought in is gambling.  If you've got the mortgage riding on the Nets - Mavericks game, well, you better hope the zerbras are on their game as well (and not on the take).  The game is played by humans, put the officiating back into human hands / eyes as well.

I’m with this honestly but it ain’t going nowhere