NCAA: Big Ten explains the second that let Underwood win

One second, put back on the clock

Michigan won 13-12. The margin is one point. The argument is one second.

Bryce Underwood’s first Hail Mary sailed out the back of the end zone and the game was ruled over. Replay disagreed. The Big Ten replay centre put a second back on the clock, Michigan got one more snap, and Underwood found JJ Buchanan for 47 yards and the win.

Hours later the conference did something it rarely does. It published the audio of the replay discussion along with the video feed the officials had been working from.

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What the replay centre was looking at

The broadcast never carried that audio. The Big Ten posted it overnight, together with a side-by-side of the play and a direct shot of the clock inside the stadium. The footage appears to show Western Michigan safety Micah Davis making contact with the ball while out of bounds, with one second still displayed.

That contact is what the review turned on. The conference statement described the method plainly: the play and the stadium clock, viewed together, produced the final ruling.

Mid-American Conference commissioner Jon Steinbrecher asked the Big Ten for an explanation on behalf of Western Michigan and said afterwards that he was satisfied with the answer he got. He congratulated Michigan and praised his own conference’s team for the performance. The officiating crew was not made available to a pool reporter after the game.

Two debuts, one second between them

Western Michigan coach Lance Taylor said he had not yet watched the replay, but that several people had told him “the game was over” before the first Hail Mary went up. He added that his defence had covered the situation correctly the first time and that he had no worries about covering it again.

Kyle Whittingham, in charge of Michigan for the first time, was more interested in the seventy minutes around that second than in the second itself. His team scored on their opening drive and on the final play of the night. In between they produced nothing, and he said as much on the NBC broadcast without dressing it up.

Michigan are ranked 16th and start the season at 1-0. Western Michigan start at 0-1, one second short.

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