CHICAGO -- This season, the Big Ten will seek a little help from the man upstairs. The man in the replay booth, that is.

For the 2004 football season, the Big Ten will implement instant replay for a one-year trial period, a decision that Big Ten Coordinator of Football Officials Dave Parry and Big Ten Associate Commissioner for Television Administration Mark D. Rudner discussed yesterday.

"The bottom line is justice," Parry said. "Let's get it right."

The replay system is a mix of the NFL version and new ideas tailored to the conference itself. The system will have three individuals in a replay booth: the technical adviser, a former Big Ten official; the communicator, a liaison between the adviser and the field; and the operator, a video replay specialist.

The technical adviser will watch the game live on the field from the box. If he sees a questionable call, he will then review the video feed. If he believes that the referee has erred on the call, he has until the next play begins to push a button and contact the referee on the field. The referee will then pick up a phone on the field, and the technical advisor will inform him of what he has seen.

Parry stressed that for the call to be reversed, the adviser in the booth must have "indisputable video evidence."

"Indisputable has gotta be clear and obvious. If there's any question, any doubt, the call stands as called by the officials," Parry said. "If 100 guys were looking at in a room, 100 of them would [agree]."

Unlike the NFL, coaches are not permitted to throw a flag onto the field to challenge. In no way are the coaches involved in initiating a review.

"I don't want to slow the game down," Penn State football coach Joe Paterno said. "I don't want some guy on the sideline throwing a flag down. I don't want to do it; I don't want one of my assistants saying to me, 'Challenge!' "

The system was devised after a comprehensive review of tape from the 2003 season, in which the conference averaged 0.65 replays per game, with 54% of those replays resulting in a call being overturned. While the replay system is meant to fix the human error that has frustrated teams -- notably Penn State -- in recent years, it will not serve to eliminate all problems with officiating.

"This is no panacea for correcting everything that goes wrong in a game," Rudner said. Additionally, reviews may only be called on certain types of plays, falling into three categories: Plays governed by sideline, goal line, end zone and end line; passing plays; and other detectable infractions. Physical fouls, such as pass interference, cannot come under review.

In the example that Parry gave, if a play is reviewed to determine when a runner's knee went down and an unnoticed face mask penalty is observed during that review, the face mask penalty cannot be subsequently called. This is one of the reasons Ohio State coach Jim Tressel is somewhat bothered by the system.

"I do have a reservation that when we're looking at a component of the game, we're only going to try to correct some of the human error," Tressel said. "I'm not sure that's the way I like to attack things."

Rudner estimates that the implementation of the instant replay system will cost no more than $100,000 for the equipment and personnel for one season. The low cost is attributed to the fact that all video feed will be taken directly from the television broadcast, and more than 90% of the intraconference games have been televised over the past five seasons.

No video from the scoreboard feed can be utilized. In the case that a game is not televised, a special production will be created, which could cost between $15,000 and $20,000.

Replay has been approved by the NCAA Football Rules Committee for use in the Big Ten only, but review can be used for interconference home games if the visiting team approved. Rudner has said that not all visiting teams have responded to the replay request, so he would not release numbers on opponents that have or have not agreed to the use of replay. The Rules Committee will review the instant replay system at the conclusion of the 2004 season to determine whether or not it will be added as a permanent rule.

It's not perfect, and it's not permanent, but for now coaches and officials alike are, for the most part, glad to have instant replay as a safeguard against error.

"I commend our league for taking the lead in something like this," Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez said. "We have the one sport where every game is important. If we can correct that and get it right, it's worth it."