09/08/26 06:05:00
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09/08 18:03 CDT NCAA says it can't overturn Michigan's win over Western
Michigan after MAC appeals outcome
NCAA says it can't overturn Michigan's win over Western Michigan after MAC
appeals outcome
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) --- After review, the Mid-American Conference wants
Western Michigan recognized as having defeated Michigan after all.
The MAC cited what it believes to be an "extraordinary" circumstance in
appealing the outcome of the Michigan-Western Michigan game and asked NCAA and
College Football Playoff administrators on Tuesday to recognize the Broncos as
the winner instead of the Wolverines. The CFP's bracket selection choices in
December carry significant financial benefits to teams that make the playoff.
The NCAA said the result will stand, noting its playing rules do not have a
protocol for overturning the outcome of a game and the Division I Football Bowl
Subdivision Oversight Committee does not have the authority to do so. According
to the NCAA Football Rules Book, the team with the most points at the end of
the game is the winner and the score is final when the referee declares the
game has ended.
"No rule decision may be changed after the ball is next legally snapped,
legally free-kicked or the second or fourth periods have ended," the rule book
says.
Michigan won 13-12 on a Hail Mary pass Saturday night after the replay official
had put one second back on the clock when Bryce Underwood's first try was
incomplete.
An NBC replay showed a clock expiring before the ball hit the ground or any
player, and Terry McCaulay --- the rules analyst on the broadcast --- said that
was a synced version of the stadium clock.
The Big Ten said later that the call was correct and published a recording of
the replay as it was reviewed by officials. The conference said it too used a
shot of the game clock in the stadium, which showed 1 second remaining when the
ball was touched by WMU's Micah Davis. Since Davis had just been out of bounds,
the clock would stop on such contact.
The Big Ten on Tuesday stood by its postgame statement and declined further
comment. Michigan spokesman David Ablauf had no comment on the appeal other
than, "The Big Ten handles all replay reviews and discussion. We don't have any
involvement in replay as an institution."
The CFP did not respond to a request seeking comment.
The controversy was the talk of college football on the long holiday weekend
with many questions surrounding how the officiating crew decided to put the
second back on the clock and give Michigan one more try at the win. The MAC
initially accepted the Big Ten explanation, but that had changed by Tuesday.
In a letter to the FBS Oversight Committee, MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher
said "established protocol" in this situation is that the television truck is
contacted with a request to insert the in-stadium game clock onto "the program
feed" --- and that is supposed be the sole source of the replay decision.
"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,"
Steinbrecher wrote.
Game results are rarely, if ever, changed after the fact unless the NCAA throws
out or vacates results because of rules infractions, though there are countless
examples of decisions by officiating crews affecting the outcome (Colorado
beating Missouri on a fifth down in 1990 is familiar to many).
Western Michigan was voted the preseason favorite in the MAC, and that would
suggest that the possibility certainly exists for it to factor into the CFP
rankings. The highest-ranked team from the Group of Six leagues gets an
automatic bid to the playoff. Michigan was ranked No. 16 in the preseason AP
Top 25 poll but dropped out of the rankings Tuesday.
"I recognize that the oversight committee does not ordinarily alter results
recorded on the field," Steinbrecher said. "Nevertheless, the circumstances of
this game are extraordinary. ... Western Michigan should not be disadvantaged
because the prescribed replay protocol was not followed and an unsynchronized
clock was used to award a play that, under the applicable procedure, should not
have occurred."
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