[UPDATE 5/14/08, 6:45 pm: Here's my appearance on today's "The Writer's Block" with Justin Myers and Rob Moseley.  During this segment (the show's second), we talk about the possibility of a Spygate-like episode occurring in college football.  You can listen to it here. For the last segment of the show, Justin and Rob carry on the discussion.  And you can find that here.]

Jay, here.

Over the weekend, I was playing Madden NFL 08 with my nephew on a Wii. Up until a week ago, I had never played anything on a Wii. When it comes to video games, I’m old school. I’m talking Atari 2600 old school (When playing Asteroids, don’t move, and stay in the middle. Just a hint.). So, I was getting new schooled by an eight year old on Madden. But I was never any good at the sports games, anyway. All I ever wanted to do was shoot stuff and blow things up. That’s it.

Plays? I never needed no stinking plays on the video games I enjoyed playing. But you do on Madden. Although, it seemed a little unfair that my nephew could watch me pick my offensive, or defensive, play and make adjustments accordingly. It also seemed kind of unfair that he always threw deep and blitzed me every single time and there was nothing I could do about it.

Well, I guess I now know how some of the New England Patriots’ opponents felt.

Yesterday morning, I stumbled upon ESPN’s coverage of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s meeting with Matt Walsh concerning the video he shot of opposing teams while a video assistant for the Patriots. And the discussion Trey Wingo, Mark Schlereth, and Chris Carter had was pretty revealing. While watching the footage, they explained the reasons why Walsh shot what he did and the in-game advantage it could have given the Patriots.

Here’s how it worked:

- Walsh was positioned in the end zone. Visually, that’s the ideal field view coaches would want to see.

- He started off by shooting the scoreboard. This would give you time, down, and distance information.

- Next, he shot the coaches sending in the hand signals for the plays.

Real quickly, let me emphasize this point. This is the critical piece of information they were trying to obtain. That’s it. Sure, they could learn coaching tendencies from this video. But, really, they could figure that out from their legal game footage and broadcast recordings. In baseball terms, they were trying to steal signals. They wanted to know what the other team was going to throw at them. And, then, they wanted to adjust to it, most likely at half-time. On the ESPN broadcast, Schlereth made a good point: if these tapes didn’t give them some type of in-game advantage, why were they wasting their time? For the next time they faced that team? Maybe. But doubtful. They wanted that info for that game.

- Finally, he shot the play. Repeat.

Right now, college football and basketball news is a little slow. Other than some news about Track & Field and Softball, there’s not a lot of news coming out of the University of Oregon. So, I’m trying to think of ways how big national stories might be relevant to Duck sports news.

Here’s how the lessons learned from Spygate might be relevant to the University of Oregon and college football:

Could Spygate happen in college football?

I don’t think so.

I mean we’ve all heard stories about schools trying to gain a competitive advantage through the use of technology. An overzealous fan records a rival schools practice and sends it to the coach. Coaches send too many text messages to recruits. Locker rooms are bugged. And spy satellites are retasked over practice fields.

Have college football programs tried to spy on other programs?

Undoubtedly. But as was noted on the ESPN set, only one other NFL team had attempted to do what the Patriots had done. And they gave up because it was too tough.

So, here are five reasons why Spygate will never happen in the college football.

5. It’s against the rules.

I know. It’s kind of weak. However, early this year, the NCAA formally banned that this kind of surveillance. Just because something is prohibited, does that mean people won’t do it? No. But following the Patriots’ scandal, that kind of violation would garner way more attention. People are looking for it now.

Also, have you ever tried to take a video camera into a college football stadium? When my sister was going to Auburn University, I tried taking a video camera into an Auburn-LSU game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. And I was immediately told that video cameras were not allowed in the stadium. My reward? I got to walk a very long way back to the car to put it away. Most venues prohibit spectators from having video cameras. Cameras are OK. And even though digital cameras and cell phones are permitted, the optics on those are not ideal. Plus, someone is going to notice if you’re holding up your point-and-shoot for the entire first half.

I know the Patriots were shooting this stuff in an official capacity. But those folks are under a lot of scrutiny, too. Just try to lug a news camera to a practice one day. At some point during the practice, you will be told to turn off your camera.

4. It’s too hard.

Ryan and I are very well-versed in the technology that would be required to pull something like this off. However, what we don’t understand is the timing, particularly considering the equipment six to seven years ago. You shoot in real-time. You digitize in real-time. And you’ve got fifteen minutes at half to parse this information and get something to the players. That’s tough for in-game adjustments. For that big rivalry game next year? Maybe. But this year? Logistically, that’s difficult. And that’s assuming you can keep everyone involved quiet.

3. The stakes are not high enough in college football.

Sure, the stakes are high in college football. And they are growing every year. But college football programs are not paying staff and assistant coaches enough for them to assume that risk. Plus, there are more college football programs than NFL teams. Yeah, if someone tells you do something, you probably do it. But, if you don’t want to use the Nuremberg defense, you tell them “no” and get ready to find a new job. Walsh wanted to be a coach. So, he was probably going to do whatever the “genius” wanted him to do. And I’m sure there was a bit of justification going on there, too.

2. NCAA coaches don’t need to do it.

NFL players are way better than NCAA players. Why does that matter? Because the gap between the best player and the worst player in the NFL is lot smaller than that same gap in college football. So, when all of the players are basically the same, then information becomes a lot more important. In college football, the more talented team usually wins. Would that information be of use to college coaches? Sure. But is that advantage worth the risk and effort? Probably not considering the amount of video date they already have at their disposal.

1. The Death Penalty.

The biggest difference in a Spygate scandal between the Patriots and a college football team is the NCAA. The Patriots are a franchise of the NFL. You can fine them. You can take away Draft picks. You can fine the coach. But the NCAA can kill your program. And that’s something that will never happen in the NFL. On the other hand, the NCAA has SMU. I don’t think that will ever happen again. But it always looms out there as a deterrent.

So, those are the “Top 5 Reasons Why Spygate Will Never Happen In College Football”? Are you buying them? Well, I don’t buy all of them, either.

Here are five reasons why a college football Spygate is inevitable.

5. College football coaches stay on the job longer.

Admittedly, I don’t have numbers to back me up on this one. Just call it a hunch. But it seems to me that college football coaches stick around just a little bit longer than NFL coaches. Not much longer. But enough that it could matter. So, that means the information gleaned from spying would have a longer shelf life.

4. Players are getting better.

As the players get better, the need for a competitive advantage in another areas grows. If the talent is equal across teams, then it becomes a game of execution and coaching. And if you knew what was coming up for just one play in each series or every other series, that might be all the advantage a coach would need.

3. The stakes in college football are getting higher.

College football coaches are getting paid more now than ever before. $1 million a year is on the low end. Try $4 million on the high end. If you can win with some consistency at the college level, you can have a job forever. That just won’t happen in the NFL. So as the stakes grow, the willingness to do anything to win grow, as well.

2. It’s only data.

Those songs you illegally downloaded? It’s only information. Hey, everyone can see what they’re doing, right? So, what’s the big deal? Increasingly, information gathering no longer has a moral component. It’s only video, right? Technology has removed the ethical boundary surrounding a lot of different types of behavior because it’s been shrouded under the veil of “technology”. What would make recording signs, recording, audio, intercepting wifi or radio signals any different? It doesn’t. And that’s the problem. The typical response now is that if it were that important, someone should do a better job of protecting it.

1. Technology is getting better and smaller.

So, you can’t take that ever-shrinking DV cam into the stadium with you, right? Right. And digital point-and-shoot cameras are improving, but a little obvious, right? Right. That kind of makes it tough to record something, doesn’t it? Nope.

If you want to spy on the opposing team (either during the game or in their game before meeting your team), here’s how you do it. First, you have to be looking for something. Going through all of that football within a short period of time would be difficult. Not impossible. But tough. You’re looking for a sign or a specific tendency. Second, your spy has to be in the end zone and dressed like most fans, school colors or whatever. Finally, that mole needs the right equipment. What could you use to watch a game in which no one would notice? How about a pair of video recording binoculars? You remember those really cool binoculars Luke Skywalker had in Star Wars? Well, you can get a pair of those now that record video. Pretty frakin’ cool. Also, instead of digitizing the footage in real-time, all you have to do is drag-and-drop the video files to your computer.

And this is just one area in which technology has improved. This does not even begin to scratch the surface of technological improvements in other areas to come.

And that’s why I’m choosing to go backwards. All I know is that if I ever get to play my nephew in Defender, I will own him.