MAC Asks NCAA, CFP to Overturn Western Michigan-Michigan Game Result

Mid-American Conference (MAC) commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher announced Tuesday that the conference had “submitted formal appeals” to the NCAA FBS Oversight Committee and the College Football Playoff regarding Western Michigan’s 13–12 Week 1 loss to Michigan. The MAC wants both bodies to “recognize Western Michigan as the actual winner of the contest,” arguing that the one second restored to the game clock at the end of Saturday’s game—which allowed Michigan to complete a game-clinching 47-yard Hail Mary—was added improperly.

In his statement, Steinbrecher said the game’s replay crew did not follow “established protocol,” which dictates that officials should defer to the broadcast clock, rather than the clock embedded within their replay systems, in moments of discrepancy. (A host of professional rules experts have raised the same issue since Saturday.) 

“Had the prescribed protocol been followed and the program-feed clock been used, no additional time would have been restored, no additional play would have been awarded, and Western Michigan would have won the game 12–7,” Dr. Steinbrecher wrote in his appeal to the NCAA FBS Oversight Committee.

It’s a stunning turnabout in the formal conversation surrounding the game, which seemed all but settled by Sunday evening. 

Early that morning, the Big Ten released a statement explaining that broadcast cameras are synced before the game; it included a video clip from its replay system showing a WMU player making out-of-bounds contact with the ball with one second left on the clock. The MAC quickly accepted the explanation via a statement attributed to Dr. Steinbrecher. WMU president Russ Kavalhuna and head football coach Lance Taylor took things a step further Sunday afternoon, holding an hour-long press conference to express their acceptance of the outcome and a desire to move forward.

It’s unclear how exactly things will unfold from here, as NCAA bylaws do not outline any formal appeals process for overruling the result of a game that has already been deemed final by game officials. What’s more, the NCAA said Tuesday night that the FBS Oversight Committee does not have the authority to overturn the outcome of a game. 

The MAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Front Office Sports about why it changed its public position or who was involved in efforts to revisit the matter. WMU also declined to answer these questions, instead referring FOS to a statement Kavalhuna released Tuesday afternoon, in which he offered a mild endorsement of the move and described the MAC as having “taken important action.” 

The Big Ten, meanwhile, issued the following message early Tuesday evening: “The Big Ten stands by the statement released following the conclusion of the Western Michigan at Michigan game and the determination made by the replay officials. We will have no further comment on the matter.”

For its part, Michigan deferred to the Big Ten—David Ablauf, the Wolverines’ senior associate athletic director for football external operations, told FOS the school “[doesn’t] have any involvement in replay as an institution.” 

Chattering Class Weighs In 

The Big Ten did not respond to FOS questions about whether it had previously issued guidance to its replay officials to follow the broadcast clock in such situations, or whether it had issued such guidance since the WMU-Michigan game on Saturday. But Fox Sports rules analyst Mike Pereira seemed to suggest as much during an appearance on The Joel Klatt Show Monday. 

“What they were looking at, somehow, there was still a tick on the clock when that ball was touched,” Pereira said. “It’s the right call with what they were looking at, but they didn’t follow the protocol, which, by the way, is not in the rulebook. There are a lot of ways that you look at things called ‘philosophy’ in officiating—it is something that has been said to [officials] and will be told to [officials] again this week.”

In an interview with FOS Tuesday morning, College GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit also weighed in, stressing the importance of synchronization between game clocks and replay system clocks moving forward. 

“To me, it’s a moot point if you don’t have the clocks aligned because you’re going to create so much confusion between the millions of viewers that are watching and then what’s happening on the field,” he said. “Why would that be a split second or a second off? That makes no sense to me. Hopefully after something like this, all of us as networks—that try to do the best job that we can—hopefully there’s a way to sync the clocks and not create that kind of confusion.” 

As of Tuesday night, at least one NCAA-recognized National Championship selector, Jeff Sagarin, has chosen to acknowledge Western Michigan as the winner over Michigan in his ratings.