Will Michigan's Win Get Overturned?

No. 16 Michigan beat Western Michigan 13-12 on Saturday night on a Hail Mary that should never have been thrown if you were watching the NBC clock. That's going to be the first sentence of this season whether anybody in Ann Arbor likes it or not.

Bryce Underwood found JJ Buchanan for 47 yards with one second on the board. Kyle Whittingham got a 1-0 start in his debut. And the Broncos went home believing they'd already won the biggest game in program history a play earlier.

The question that's followed the result all morning is whether it can be taken away. The short answer is no. The longer answer is why people keep asking.

What actually happened

The sequence is simple even if the optics aren't.

Michigan trailed 12-7 in the final seconds. Underwood spiked it with 11 seconds left, then threw the first Hail Mary out of the back of the end zone. The stadium celebration started for opposing fans and Western Michigan. The broadcast clock hit zeroes with the ball still in the air.

Officials went to replay, put one second back, and Michigan got another snap. Underwood threw it again. Buchanan came down with it. The Big House stormed the field for a game Michigan was a 27.5-point favorite in and spent most of the night losing.

The Big Ten's explanation

The conference says Western Michigan's Micah Davis, No. 18, left his feet from an established out-of-bounds position, left foot down, and touched the ball with one second still showing on the stadium clock. Once an out-of-bounds player touches a loose ball, the play is dead and the clock stops.

The Big Ten released the replay its officials used: a side-by-side of the play and a direct shot of the stadium clock. It also noted that all broadcast cameras feeding the replay system, including the one pointed at the game clock, are strobe-synced 85 minutes before kickoff.

That's the official version.

Why McAulay couldn't get there

NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay spent the end of the broadcast saying he didn't see how they arrived at it, because the ball was still in the air when the television graphic hit zero.

McAulay walked the booth through it and landed on the likeliest explanation himself: NBC's broadcast had its own sync to the stadium clock, while the Big Ten's replay center was working off a different one, called Hawk-Eye.

Both things can be sitting in the same story at the same time. That's exactly why this is going to follow Michigan to Norman.

Everybody saw zeroes

Lance Taylor said he looked up and saw zeroes before his defender touched it. Underwood said the same thing from the other sideline when he saw zeroes, he thought they'd lost. Then they had one second, and the thought became giving his guys a chance.

Buchanan still had to go get it.

The Answer

The rule isn't complicated. When the referee declares the game ended, the score is final. The referee declared this one over after Buchanan's catch.

There's no mechanism that lets the NCAA, the Big Ten office, or a Monday morning protest turn a completed game into a Western Michigan win because the country hated the replay.

Vacating a win is a different animal entirely. It's reserved for later findings of ineligible players or major rules violations, and it doesn't flip the result to the other team. Even in the scenario people are daydreaming about, the Broncos don't get handed the W.

And the last door closed on Sunday. Taylor said he'd talk to the commissioner about whether a review was possible, but the MAC has accepted the Big Ten's explanation that a second remained. When the aggrieved conference signs off, there's nothing left to appeal to.

So the win stands

That doesn't make the night clean.

Michigan rushed for 106 yards, lost time of possession by 20 minutes, turned it over three times, and needed a second-chance prayer to beat a MAC champion that kicked four field goals and never trailed by more than a score. We predicted 38-10. It was 13-12, and Michigan was behind for most of it.

Oklahoma is next, at noon, on FOX.

The controversy doesn't travel as a legal problem. It travels as a reputation problem. Michigan is 1-0 and the record book isn't going to change that. The film of the first 59 minutes isn't going to pretend this looked like a 27-point favorite either.