Western Michigan football likely has some beef with Michigan– and the refs.
The Wolverines won 13-12 over the Broncos at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Sept. 9, on a last-second Hail Mary pass from quarterback Bryce Underwood to receiver JJ Buchanan. The game had appeared to be over one play before when Underwood's previous Hail Mary attempt sailed out of the end zone with the game clock appearing to have expired, but the officials put one second left on the clock, giving the Wolverines their opportunity to win.
The decision immediately came under scrutiny, with NBC rules analyst Terry McAauley questioning how the call was made.
"Our in-set clock is in-synch, is the actual stadium clock, the ball isn't even close to touching a player
when it goes to zero," McAauley said. "Now their system, their Hawk-eye system, apparently either had a different synch or whatever and they came up with 1 second when it touched the players. I don't see how that happened, assuming our clock is correct."
But if this was found to be the wrong call, can it be reversed?
The short answer, and final answer, is no.
Here is the official 2026 NCAA football rulebook, with the relevant passage on Rule 1, Section 1, Article 3, paragraph b:
"When the referee declares that the game is ended, the score is final."
In a day and age of constant controversy in college football, Western Michigan coach Lance Taylor chose not to create chaos.
"I thought that this crew tonight did a really nice job handling multiple close calls and review situations," Taylor said. "We had several where the spot was questioned and reviewed, and those calls went our way, the review went our way. I'll let the commissioner and those guys handle it."
"When I looked up at the clock, I knew it was passed zeros before we touched it," Taylor also said. "I knew that they would review it, it was the last play of the game, and because we had defended it so well I wasn't worried or concerned about our guys going out and defending it a second time. Unfortunately we did not defend it as well the second time."
Western Michigan president Russ Kavalhuna also came out for a press conference after the game and said the school will discuss the play with the NCAA, but acknowledged not much will likely come from it.
"We'll try to figure out if the end of the game was anything different from what we saw," he said. "We'll talk to the commissioner and see if there is anything we can ask for a review on. Frankly, I don't know if we can.
"This football team deserves a second look, if that's possible."
There is one way that Michigan's win can be taken away, however: if the NCAA later rules the win should be vacated thanks to a rules violation. But even if the win is vacated, the game would not be awarded as a win for the Broncos.
So even if the Broncos have an argument for having a win stolen from them, the NCAA rules defer to the referees in this instance. This will live as a Michigan win in the record book.
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Can Michigan's controversial Hail Mary win over WMU be overturned?
