Every college football fan in Blacksburg spent days rewinding that final kick against Pitt over and over again, trying to find a definitive answer on a play that defied the camera lens. When a single close call decides a Friday night thriller, teams start looking for answers outside the standard broadcast setup. Tired of leaving games to chance, Virginia Tech decided not to wait for the conference office to fix a blind spot that cost them dearly.
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According to images shared by CFB Kings on social media, the Hokies have mounted cameras right on their goalposts, pointing straight upward to capture the exact vertical plane that standard sideline angles always miss.
That’s not the ACC’s first camera experiment. According to the league’s broadcast material, ACC Network started cutting holes in goalposts in 2020 for soccer, with cameras at Duke, Florida State, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Virginia, after similar tests in MLS. This season, the ACC debuted a FIFA-style referee camera in a North Carolina State-Virginia game. It has also tried pylon cams, helmet cams, and ground microphones. Now, this installation would be the first time one of the top tools is aimed at a football kick.
Virginia Tech trailed Pitt 35-33 at Lane Stadium with three seconds left. Love lined up from 36 yards on the right hash. The ball hooked left, right at the left upright. The official under the post waved it off, as Pitt stormed the field, and the Hokies fans behind the end zone were sure they had won.
Nobody could check it. The NCAA rulebook only lets officials review a field goal if the ball is lower than the top of the uprights, and this one was above it. ESPN had no clean angle from underneath. One fan video from behind the post showed the kick inside, while another angle from the far end showed it wide. Former NFL referee Terry McAulay wrote that the official under the upright and the one behind him both read it as a miss.
Virginia Tech outgained Pitt 499-295 with quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer throwing for 434 yards, but it turned the ball over four times and took eight penalties for 82 yards. Pitt did not turn it over even once.
Penn State fired James Franklin in October 2025 after three straight losses, after which he took the Virginia Tech job. He brought in 12 Penn State transfers and started 4-0 after the Hokies went 3-9 last year. The Pitt game was his first loss in Blacksburg, and he said the game came down to turnovers and explosive plays.
“To be honest with you, from my angle, I don’t know. I think John Love is the best kicker in the country,” Franklin said postgame, according to Matthew Couden of Newsweek. “I had so much confidence that thing was going to go through, and from my angle, I couldn’t tell you, one way or another.”
A camera aimed upward could give officials a clearer view of whether the ball passed inside the uprights, but it wouldn’t change the rules for reviewing the kick. A kick above the top is still not reviewable unless the NCAA rewrites that line. CBS put six cameras inside the goalposts for Super Bowl LVIII, and ESPN rigged four overhead cameras over the pylons for the 2022 national title game.
The cameras could make for a better broadcast angle, but whether they help officials settle controversial kicks remains to be seen this Saturday.