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Michigan and Alabama have surely been studying film for their Rose Bowl matchup against each other on New Year's Day but not on their iPad due to an ongoing NCAA investigation into the video and data analysis app Catapult.
Catapult, a provider of all-encompassing video and data analysis solutions for football teams, is under investigation due to potential cybersecurity issues, including unauthorized access to video footage. The system carries the risk of being hacked, allowing opposing teams to gain access. Although most of the footage players watch pertains to future opponents, the portal could potentially contain practice videos or other internal secrets that could benefit rival teams.
The college football world was made aware of the issues with Catapult after Alabama receiver Isaiah Bond, per a quote obtained by AL.com. Bond explained what the app is, a possible reason why they can't watch film on their own, and the team's approach to analyzing game film in light of the situation.
“It's basically like the app where we record, like film on for practice and stuff like that. And it was like, I guess, like looking at other people's play calls, like during the first eight games or something like that. So we were able to, like, watch film with the team. But personally, we can't watch film because, like, I don't know, some reason with the Michigan stealing signs.”
Bond expressed that the Crimson Tide coaching staff told the players about a week ago in preparation for Michigan that they can't watch film on their own.
However, per USA Today's Dan Wolken, Alabama hasn't officially confirmed that the Michigan sign-stealing saga is the reason why they haven't viewed film on their iPads or if a similar cybersecurity concern is another reason for the decision.
“Alabama offensive coordinator Tommy Rees declined several opportunities to elaborate on why the Tide felt the need to protect its practice film,” Wolken said in his report. “But teams typically distribute that type of footage direct to players’ iPads via an online cloud storage service. Though nobody said it explicitly, the implication would be that Alabama wanted to take extra precaution against hacking into the film system.”
Also of note, Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy told reporters during Friday's media availability that they haven't watched film on their iPads since November.
“It makes sense just with everything going on and the society we live in today, but like we haven't been watching film on our iPads all of November just because of everything that's been going on. Just making sure that we get that time in the facility, that time to watch film and really dissect whoever we're playing.”
Michigan Offensive Coordinator Sherrod Moore corroborated McCarthy, saying, “Yeah, just caught wind of things that could be going on,” Moore said. “Just told our kids, I think it was early November, ‘hey, we're not watching stuff on the iPads anymore. Watch it in-house and handle it that way. It's something we decided from our own perspective that people heard some things and we wanted to make sure that we were safe on our end.”
USA Today's “For The Win” reached out to a spokesperson for Catapult and confirmed that the NCAA is indeed investigating the matter and is in full cooperation with local authorities.
Catapult also released a statement, saying,
“We are aware of the ongoing investigation of the alleged unauthorized access to NCAA football video footage. We have conducted an internal investigation and have not found any security breach in our systems. We have shared this with local authorities who are conducting an investigation. We will continue to support the ongoing investigation with the NCAA and local authorities. At Catapult, we hold ourselves to the highest of standards, and safeguarding customer information is of utmost importance to us.”
