Fans of Razorbacks, SEC About to be Opened to World Never Thought Possible

Apple brings new Vision that may alter how fans experience sports forever

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Jun 6, 2023 4:28 PM EDT
Original:
Jun 6, 2023

In this story:

FRISCO, Texas – When it comes to the world of college sports, especially football, there haven't been many innovations in how we experience the game from home.

Other than quality of picture and graphics, a game from the Houston Nutt era at Arkansas in the 1990s looks essentially the same as the it did when Sam Pittman coached the Razorbacks to a win over Kansas in the Liberty Bowl a few months ago. How it was watched was relatively the same too. For the most part, people sat on their couch or in their favorite establishment and soaked it all in. A few unfortunate souls watched it on their phones, but there were small televisions back in the 1990s also.

However, it appears the first major change to the college sports viewing experience is finally here and it's not only going to be huge for fans, but it provides a way for athletic programs to make even more money if they can beat the networks to it. This past Monday, Apple introduced a new spatial computer called Vision Pro. It's a headset that provides what is known as mixed reality.

Quite frankly, for those in the "I hate Texas" age group, it's going to be a bit too futuristic. However, for the "Why is Texas a big deal?" age group, it's the most exciting thing to ever happen to the Razorbacks or any other sports team. To put it in a nutshell, it's a headset based computer that is worn that can lay a sporting event over the area where you are as if it's on a giant television screen with directional speakers pouring quality, directional based sound into your ears. It also makes the lighting in your room appear dimmed with appropriate lighting that color coordinates with the screen to keep things in the real world from being distracting.

If a giant television screen isn't enough, it can be adjusted to appear as if it's on a 100-foot movie screen. Want to take things up a notch? Then change what you are seeing behind your screen. Watch the game on an IMAX sized screen by a lake at night surrounded by mountains if that's your thing. Just change the settings and be transported there right away. Scroll a dial on the frame of the headset to determine whether a little bit of your living room shows or completely wipe away the site of your messy house or the plane you are flying on so you can relax and enjoy the game in a moment of peace.

During the game, a friend can send you a 3D animation of a Razorback running through a pack of Collies and sending them crashing to the ground following a KJ Jefferson touchdown against A&M. Simply glance with your eyes at the message containing the file and then click the tips of your fingers together to select it. You can then move things around to view that Hog run across the floor of your living room or back yard wiping out the Reveilles over and over from as many angles as you would like. It's even possible to have files of a 3D Nick Saban sent to stand in your room and yell at the screen "That wouldn't have happened if Jimbo Fisher had called that play!" every time a team stops one an Alabama player behind the line of scrimmage. Sure, it's not true, but it definitely is fun to see him say it so angrily.

The biggest carrot in this basket is how it works with 3D technology. Sports fans can now fully immerse themselves in a realistic 3D world. They can even click a button on it and record moments in 3D to relive over and over again as if they're right there in the memory. It will be as if they have their own real life Harry Potter style Pensieve to fall back into their memories. If we had this when I was a kid, I could take my children back in time and have them on the couch with me and my friends when Scotty Thurman hit that rainbow three against Duke to win the national title. It's the closest thing to a time machine that we may ever have.

However, this part of the technology is where colleges should be able to see money pouring in. Let's say the Texas game sells out because all the 50+ crowd got really excited the Longhorns were coming back and wanted to be there in person. Well, the remaining portion of the fan base that might not see a game against a perennial college football doormat with jacked up ticket prices because second hand buyers know they can squeeze the older crowed for every penny possible, can still have the option to view the game as if they are in the stadium with premium seats.

All it takes is one 3D camera, which aren't that big these days, placed in one strategic seat with a wide angle lens to give people who have the Apple Vision Pro the chance to wipe away their living rooms and be right there in the stadium cheering on the Razorbacks right alongside everyone else. The athletics department would simply charge half the price of a ticket that's literally in the stadium, and even if only 10 people join, that's five times what that seat would have made. Plus, it won't be just Razorback fans buying up that seat. Texas fans who can't get tickets, don't have the time or money for gas and hotels, can also sit in prime seating at Razorback Stadium.

Just think of the appeal. People who could never watch their team play a night game in Death Valley could suddenly get one of the coolest experiences ever when LSU rolls onto the schedule. If somehow a sensor could touch the actual stadium and provide vibrations to the headset when the stadium shakes as a selectable feature, that would enhance the experience even more.

National championship games, especially in football, are experienced only by the rich and famous, who typically aren't the greatest, most invested fans. This allows those who don't have the thousands of dollars to partake in their team's title shot to be there also. Each school could have a set-up on their half of the stadium and make more than enough to cover most or all of the hotel and travel costs.

There's a lot that can be done with this technology. The options in the world of sports and entertainment are endless. When the first smartphone came out, it was easy to tell this was the technology that was going to dramatically change life for a generation in a way that it would seem strange to those who have only known life with it it to imagine life without it. This is going to do the same also.

At some point in time, your future relatives aren't going to be able to picture a world where you sit down on a couch, stare across a stack of laundry you didn't put up because the game was starting, and simply look over it toward a screen where you couldn't glance sideways to change the channel or resize to be as big as you'd like. It will be as weird as renting tapes from Blockbuster and going outside to play with friends in person all day until the street lamps came on.

Change is coming. The only question is which sports teams are going to be the first to change with it.