Complicating matters is that some teams make agreements to exchange video on the condition that the video not be shared with other teams. Yet that does not always guarantee secrecy.

One video coordinator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue can be so sensitive, said that when he once came upon a situation in which a team had agreed not to release another team’s video, he simply asked one of his coaches if he knew someone on that team’s staff who could help. The coach called his friend and was able to secure the film.

“I don’t even know if there were any other coaches on that team’s staff who knew about it,” the video coordinator said.

A coaching switch can also make a video coordinator’s life difficult. Because a team’s video from the previous season would show the previous coach’s formations, a video coordinator must find video from the new coach’s former team.

“A lot of times, we’re restricted by what the coaching staff wants to do,” Espinoza said. “A lot of times, there’s a reason they don’t want to give something out. But it’s silly, too, because the other schools are going to find a way to get it.”

What separates the film that each team owns from the footage shot by broadcast cameras is that it does not focus on the ball. Instead, cameras are set up on the side of the field and in the end zone by each team’s video department to capture panoramic shots of the entire field. The sideline camera, usually placed somewhere in the press box area, captures all the movement before the snap and all the action on the field, like the routes of wide receivers and the movement of defensive backs.