BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The Big 12 plans to experiment with eight football officials next season, not seven, in a new attempt to keep pace with the game's speed, spot more fouls and better protect players.

Football officiating coordinators in conferences across the country recently approved the Big 12's one-year trial to place an extra official with the referee in the offensive backfield, Big 12 officiating coordinator Walt Anderson said today. The proposal must still be approved by the NCAA rules committee and Big 12 athletics directors and coaches.

"With offenses throwing more and going to the spread, the coverages that were for decades defined by seven officials are really appearing to be inadequate just to keep pace with the game," Anderson said.

The NFL experimented with an eighth official in the 2010 preseason by using a "deep judge" downfield. Anderson, who is an NFL referee, said that plan served no purpose because the holes in officiating coverage are around the line of scrimmage.

"Once a play develops, you basically have five officials covering half the players downfield on pass routes and two officials (referee and umpire) covering the other half," Anderson said. "That's not a very good mathematical mix."

Three years ago, the NFL permanently moved umpires to the offensive backfield to protect its most vulnerable on-field officials. The Big 12's idea is to keep umpires in their traditional spot -- on the defensive side several yards from the line of scrimmage -- and have another backfield official helping the referee.

"We want the best of both worlds," Anderson said. "An advantage of being part of the NFL system is you can take a look at the things that did and didn't work."

Big 12 officiating coordinator and NFL referee Walt Anderson

The Big 12 would be the only conference experimenting with eight officials during the season. ACC officiating coordinator Doug Rhoads said his conference will use eight officials in spring practices, largely to see if that reduces the responsibilities for the head linesman, who often drifts downfield during pass routes.

"We task the same seven guys to watch things, but there are gaps to it," Rhoads said. "The dilemma is how can we do what we do better, and if we put an extra guy there, can we get our money's worth? Nobody knows."

Rhoads said his initial thought for the spring is putting the extra ACC official in the backfield to help with substitutions and as a second set of eyes from behind.

"Personally, I think the umpire is at a distinct disadvantage calling holding 7 yards off the line of scrimmage," he said.

Anderson said holding would "absolutely" be caught more with an eighth official. The Big 12's proposal would have the eighth official -- there's no name for him yet -- covering a tackle area that's often not watched by officials on pass plays.

The eighth official would be responsible for the tackle box opposite the portion covered by the referee. That would free up a linesman to work downfield on pass plays.

As passing increases and there's more emphasis on penalizing players who target the head of an opponent, officials must currently sacrifice watching the blocking area, Anderson said.

"We want to make sure we're covering the field effectively from a safety aspect," he said. "(The eighth official) gives us another set of eyes for hits on a quarterback and a lot of blindside actions that happen that the referee physically cannot see. High hits on the quarterback and chop blocks would be areas we'd be better in covering."

Anderson said the eighth official would also allow the ball to be spotted more efficiently as hurry-up offenses gain popularity. Spotting the ball would be a responsibility for the eighth official. Anderson believes that would free the referee and umpire to maintain their normal positions and look for whether to stop play due to substitution rule allowances.

If the Big 12 experiments during the season, Anderson said less than 10 officials would be added to the league's current roster. The Big 12 would draw on officials from College Football Officiating West, a shared regional structure between the Big 12, Mountain West and Southland conferences.

"The officials exist who are qualified," Anderson said. "That's one advantage of having the CFO West in place for a number of years. They've trained with us."

The Big 12 would compile a year's worth of extensive video with eight officials to produce a report about the pros and cons for the NCAA rules committee to discuss next winter.

"Do you have other conferences experiment with it, or do you determine it's not really something you want to consider?" Anderson said. "The college game is evolving rapidly. It's important for officiating to keep pace."

E-mail: jsolomon@al.com. Follow @jonsol