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.
