There’s no voguing on NFL sidelines.

Instead, the advent of the one-way helmet communicator in 1994 streamlined one of the most repeated occurrences of any football game — how coaches relay the play. For the ensuing 30 years, varieties of the same question have been asked to college coaches and conference administrators: What are you guys waiting for?

LSU’s Brian Kelly said it’s “silly” the rules have yet to change. Florida’s Billy Napier thinks some coaches would stick to the old ways of cardboard signs and elaborate hand signals to transpose audibles. Georgia’s Kirby Smart, a former co-chair of the football rules committee, has been involved in the conversation for a decade, but he doesn’t have a “hard stance.”

Alabama coach Nick Saban said the introduction of a communicator would be a “real positive,” especially on defense (The NFL introduced a defensive helmet receiver in 2008.) Most agree with him, so what’s the holdup? As is often the case in the SEC, for the straight answer, one just has to ask Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin.

“That’s come up for a lot of years and it seems to get shot down every time, so I really haven’t given much thought to it,” Kiffin said on the SEC teleconference. “I guess it’s a problem. I mean, we basically do everything the NFL does first, and then we eventually catch up. It’s probably a longtime overdue.

“There was financial concerns for smaller schools. That was a long time ago. I sound old now. I’ve been around the league meetings a long time. … I don’t know the answer as to why it hasn’t gone through. I’m sure now there’s a glaring story about something now, though, reacting to it.”

This week, headlines have been dominated by the sign-stealing scandal from Michigan, the current No. 2 team in the country. According to multiple ESPN, Yahoo Sports and Sports Illustrated reports, now-suspended (with pay) analyst Connor Stalions had a network of at least three others attending games for multiple seasons, nabbing seats with clear views of opposition coaches making their calls to players.

Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh has denied “illegally” obtaining signals. Published articles and video evidence place Stalions at the stadiums of multiple national title contenders, including a ticket purchased to the Alabama-Georgia 2021 SEC title game. Stalions was also spotted on the sidelines ahead of last year’s Michigan-Ohio State meeting.

“I know back in the old days when I was in the NFL, there was a time when you could send out scouts and scout a game, personnel and that type of thing,” Saban said after admitting he didn’t know the background on the recent news. “I don’t think it was geared towards sign stealing, but that was allowed. They changed that rule I think sometime back. We’ve never had that in college for a long, long time.”

Saban was on Bill Belichick’s Cleveland Browns staff as defensive coordinator. Saban noted on the Sept. 7 edition of “Hey Coach” that “we had a guy in the press box that always stole the signals of the other team,” but Saban wouldn’t want to know the signals. Coincidentally, Belichick would be a part of the Spygate scandal in 2007, and again in 2019, when his New England Patriots were caught stealing signals under the guise of advance scouting.

A reason for apprehension at the college level is the uniformity aspect. If the SEC institutes a communicator for players, what happens in a non-conference game or the postseason? This was reportedly addressed by former LSU coach Ed Orgeron in 2021 at the league’s spring meetings, according to The Athletic. He argued that other conferences would soon follow if the SEC led the charge.

On Wednesday, all but three of the 14 SEC head football coaches vocalized, at minimum, an openness to a helmet receiver being placed into one player’s helmet on each side of the ball (Kiffin, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz and Mississippi State’s Zach Arnett).

On sign-stealing overall, coaches have taken differing views like Arkansas’ Sam Pittman saying he doesn’t believe in it. South Carolina’s Shane Beamer noted some coaches “don’t want (helmet communicators) for certain reasons,” what other coaches have alluded to being an opposition’s reliance on stealing signals.

Still, it’s mostly unargued, as Auburn’s Hugh Freeze said, knowing simply if a pass or run play is coming provides a competitive advantage.

“I think we’re way past, I think we should have done it a long time ago. It’s needed and it’s the right thing to do,” Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said, “Plus, at our level of playing football, that’s what you do in the NFL. That’s another avenue. We’ve shortened the game like that. We’ve done everything like that. Why not get those guys get used to doing it at the next level?.”

CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd reported that teams will have the option to implement a helmet communicator in the upcoming bowl season. That potentially makes the Michigan scandal a watershed moment that would, as Kiffin aforementioned, allow colleges to catch up to a practice common at the NFL and even some high schools.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].