Oh well.
The NCAA has weighed in on the controversial week 1 ending in the matchup between the Michigan Wolverines and the Western Michigan Broncos, which resulted in the Wolverines sneaking out a win on a last-second Hail Mary.
By now I’m sure you know what happened, but if not, here’s a quick summary with everything you need to know.
The Broncos, who compete in the Mid-American Conference, came into the game as 28 point underdogs. But they managed to give the #16-ranked Wolverines all they could handle in Ann Arbor.
The Broncos kicked a field goal with just 1:15 left on the clock to make the score 12 to 7, meaning Michigan needed to drive down the field to score in just over a minute if they wanted to avoid what would have been considered one of the biggest upsets in the history of college football.
With no timeouts left and only 9 seconds on the clock, Michigan was forced to throw a Hail Mary, which star quarterback Bryce Underwood overthrew, with the ball falling to the ground outside the back of the end zone after the clock hit triple zeros.
Western Michigan took the field to celebrate, but officials quickly announced that the play was under review. After a couple of minutes, the referee announced that there was actually one second left on the clock, meaning Michigan would have time for one final Hail Mary. And…well, we all know what happened next. This time, Underwood threw to the front of the end zone, Michigan scored a touchdown, and the Wolverines scored a walkoff 13-12 win as time expired (again), robbing us of one of the all-time great upsets in college football history.
After the absurd ending, the broadcast showed what was thought to be the official clock to confirm that time had expired after the first Hail Mary, and therefore Western Michigan should have won the game. But the Big Ten issued a statement claiming that, basically, there was another clock the officials used that showed one second left on the clock when the Broncos defender first touched the ball:
“Following video review, it was determined Western Michigan’s #18 started his jump from an established out-of-bounds position (left foot) and made contact with the ball with one second remaining on the clock. As shown in the provided video of what was viewed during the replay process, a side-by-side view of the play and the game clock, using a direct shot of the game clock in the stadium, was used to determine the final ruling.
Eighty-five minutes prior to the game, all broadcast cameras used for the replay system, including the camera on the game clock, are synced using a strobe system to ensure all cameras are aligned.
Per NCAA Football rule 4-2-3-a, ‘A ball not in player control, other than a kick that scores a field goal, is out of bounds when it touches the ground, a player, a game official or anything else that is out-of-bound [sic], or that is on or outside a boundary line,’ and thus the clock is stopped.”
Well at first, Western Michigan and the MAC seemed to accept the explanation, even if begrudgingly. But later, the conference changed its mind, and asked the NCAA to recognize the Broncos as the winner of the game, arguing that the referees failed to follow the proper protocols for replays:
“This was not a judgment regarding the proper amount of time to place on the clock. It was an error in the application of the established replay protocol governing this specific end-of-game timing situation. Had the protocol been properly followed and the program-feed clock been used, no additional play would have been awarded, and Western Michigan would have won the game, 12-7.
As a result, the Mid-American Conference has submitted formal appeals to the NCAA FBS Oversight Committee and the College Football Playoff. The MAC is requesting that those bodies recognize Western Michigan as the actual winner of the game for purposes of their respective rankings, evaluations and selection deliberations, and take such other corrective action as may be within their authority.”
Unfortunately though, that’s not going to happen.
The NCAA’s FBS oversight committee said today that it doesn’t have the authority to overturn the result – though it admits that the Big Ten officiating crew messed up by not following the instant replay protocols.
The committee admits that, had the refs followed the rules, “the outcome of the game would have been different.”
Doubt that makes Western Michigan feel any better.
If it’s any consolation to the Broncos, video posted by a fan appears to show that the referees were correct in determining that there was one second left on the clock at the time the ball on the failed Hail Mary was touched:
It’s a tough situation: If there really was one second on the clock, as it appears from the video taken on the field, then the refs ultimately got it right, even if they went about it the wrong way. If there WASN’T time left on the clock, then Western Michigan was robbed of one of the all-time great college upsets because the officials screwed up.
I guess that’s college football in 2026.
