Someone screwed Western Michigan. But who?

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - SEPTEMBER 05: Broc Lowry #12 of the Western Michigan Broncos looks on with seconds to play against the Michigan Wolverines at Michigan Stadium on September 05, 2026 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game on a 47 yard touchdown pass with no time on the clock. | Getty Images I don’t think Michigan’s absurd escape against Western Michigan on Saturday night was the result of foul play by the Big Ten. But it’s a different kind of scandal, one where either a conference’s faulty system or that of its multibillion-dollar media rights partner gave the Broncos every reason to feel robbed. Either the Broncos pulled off their biggest win in program history and had it taken from them, or they were led to believe they’d pulled it off because one of two massive businesses made a logistics error that benefitted an underachieving business partner (Michigan) at the expense of a MAC team playing its heart out. The No. 16 Wolverines trailed their season opener and first game under Kyle Whittingham, 12-7, with nine seconds left. QB Bryce Underwood took the snap, ran around for a moment, and heaved the ball through the back of the end zone, apparently ending the game. You need not work in STEM to see a blurry football floating through the air, untouched, as NBC’s broadcast shows 0:00 on the clock. Ballgame: Of course, it wasn’t ballgame. The Big Ten’s replay officials ruled that there was a second on the clock when the ball went dead, and they gave Michigan another shot from the WMU 47-yard line. This time, Utah transfer JJ Buchanan high-pointed the ball and caught it, answering Michigan’s prayers and putting a 13-12 final on the board for the home team. Because most people have eyes, lots of us were immediately offended by the screw job the Big Ten had perpetrated against the underdogs from the MAC. There’s more going on here, though. After the game, the Big Ten released the footage and an audio track from the conversation its review team was having as it watched the play. The league even put it up on Dropbox, raising the question of why it shouldn’t just join the ACC in sharing review deliberations live on TV. You can watch yourself, but the key thing is right here. No. 18 for WMU, Micah Davis, jumps from out of bounds and, on the replay team’s clock, touches the ball with one second left. Not everyone can be right at once. Either NBC (and reportedly Michigan’s in-stadium clock) were wrong to show triple-zeroes to everyone on the field and the millions of people watching from afar, or the Big Ten was wrong to have its own clock operating a split-second behind the real thing. The Big Ten doesn’t say it explicitly — and I might not either, if a media conglomerate paid me hundreds of millions of dollars to show my football games on TV. But the Big Ten’s statement on the matter seems designed to blame NBC for displaying a faulty clock. As the conference writes, somewhat vaguely: Eighty-five minutes prior to the game, all broadcast cameras used for the replay system, including the camera on the game clock, are synced using a strobe system to ensure all cameras are aligned. Two possibilities, then: Millions of people (including the 22 players on the field) were looking at the wrong clock, or the Big Ten stole away a win from a MAC upstart. Neither of these things is cool, and given the money and emotional stakes at play, both the league and its media-rights partner have difficult questions to answer. There doesn’t have to be a grand conspiracy at play for reasonable people to think WMU was at best the victim of inexplicable replay overreach and disorganization that was everyone else’s fault. I feel a bit silly even trying to explain what really happened here. People can approach this reasonably and still not trust what they’re hearing. I get it! It looks terrible, bordering on sinister. Whoever had the clock wrong, the outcome spared Michigan from a real indignity. The program’s 2007 loss to Appalachian State wasn’t as bad as some people say. The Mountaineers were in the midst of three straight Division I-AA national championships. It wasn’t so awful for even a blue-blood program to lose to that team. Losing with a $30 million-plus roster here would’ve been worse, with full respect to a solid WMU program that won the MAC last year. It should’ve never been this close in the player payment era. Other indignities are coming anyway. This looks like a mediocre Michigan team, one that lost to a Directional Michigan opponent for at least 59 minutes and 59.7 seconds. Though the Wolverines get to deal with these problems at 1-0 instead of 0-1, their offense looked catastrophic: A new offensive line got whipped by a MAC opponent all night. The Wolverines’ two running backs, Jordan Marshall and Savion Hiter, combined for 59 yards on 16 carries. The only respectable running performance came from Underwood, whose last carry ended with a fumble that should have sealed the game for WMU. The Broncos had a quality defense last year and seem to have another this year, but no Big Ten line should ever lose like that to a MAC front. Underwood was hit as he uncorked the winning Hail Mary, when Michigan had six linemen blocking four pass rushers. Oklahoma will be licking its chops ahead of Week 2. Underwood did not show a lot of development. The sophomore QB was 12-of-22 for 170 yards with a touchdown, a sack, and two turnovers. Buchanan played well, catching six of nine targets (including the winner) for 126 yards. But Michigan got nothing else going in the passing game. If you hoped Underwood would take a big leap after the firing of disgraced head coach Sherrone Moore, you’re still hoping. The same goes for non-Buchanan receivers. For WMU’s part, the Broncos are denied the greatest moment in program history, one that would’ve been a bigger deal even than the program’s Cotton Bowl appearance under PJ Fleck in 2016. They’re now clear favorites to repeat as MAC champions, but five of those in a row wouldn’t be as big a deal as what they seemed to have won on Saturday. They’ll never get over it, and they shouldn’t.

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