Western Michigan’s prayers for an overturn of their highly controversial loss to Michigan on a last-second Hail Mary will go unanswered.
On Tuesday night, the NCAA and the FBS Oversight Committee said they have no protocol for overturning a game’s outcome, On3’s Pete Nakos reports.
The response from the college athletics governing body comes after the MAC, the conference Western Michigan is part of, issued a formal appeal asking that Western Michigan be declared the winner of Saturday night’s contest.
The controversy arose after Michigan QB Bryce Underwood threw a pass out of the back of the end zone with no time remaining on the broadcast clock. That, to everyone, seemed to signal the end of the game: a shocking 12-7 upset for Western Michigan. Then, Big 10 replay officials, operating with a clock that lagged behind the one shown to viewers on their screens, ruled that the pass touched an out-of-bounds defender with one second remaining.
That extra second gave Michigan another play, and this time, Underwood completed the Hail Mary pass, which gave Michigan a 13-12 lead and the win.
The MAC initially accepted the Big 10’s explanation for the clock discrepancy. However, as the uproar increased after Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira accused the Big 10 of not following protocols by reverting to the broadcast clock instead of the one kept by replay officials, the MAC changed its tune and sought to have the outcome overturned.
The governing body says that effort is not within the NCAA’s power.
“When the referee declares that the game is ended, the score is final,” Rule 1-1-3-b, Winning Team and Final Score, in the NCAA Football Rules Book states.
“The established replay protocol requires that the game clock displayed on the program feed be used in determining whether time remained. Instead, the Big Ten Conference replay crew relied upon the clock feed embedded within its replay system. As a result, one second was placed back on the game clock, and an additional play was awarded,” MAC commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher said in the statement.
“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.”
The Big 10 has declined to comment further on the matter.