Brown Football - NCAA Tablet Technology Case Study

Brown University football is one of the most tenured college football programs in the country. The Bears played their first game in 1878, and since then have played over 1,200+ games spanning across 150 years. When the NCAA approved the use of sideline tablets in live competition April 18th 2024, it was interesting to see a team with such a storied tradition, be so quick to adopt this new technology. 

The Bears were one of the first teams to get in touch with GameStrat once the news broke about sideline tablets. We got the chance to speak with Brown's Director of Player Development, Paul Frisone, about their experience in ultimately choosing GameStrat.

We asked Paul to describe what made the Brown staff so quick to adopt the technology once the NCAA had approved it.

We didn’t want to sit on our hands, our head coach was very proactive and after speaking with you guys and seeing how your system works, we decided to ride with you!

The Bears used the GameStrat system during their spring practices to get more familiar with it. Coach Frisone highlighted the benefits they got from it during practice but anticipates receiving serious value from the technology come the fall. 

Having the ability to make real time adjustments in game and not wait until halftime is huge!

With this technology being so new, Frisone described how the staff had to familiarize themselves with the technology and its competitors. We asked what it was about the GameStrat system that made their staff choose GameStrat. 

After doing the practice setup, the plug & play aspect was very straightforward. It's simple to setup & operate. 

We decided to close out our talk with Paul by asking what are some key scenarios the coaching staff plan on using the iPads for and what type of benefit they'll get out of it. 

On the iPads we can see what coverage they're in. We can see the fronts. If a player comes off the field our coaches can show him exactly what happened. There's no guessing anymore.