Updated

Updated · Detroit News · Sep 7

ESPN Pundits Blast Big Ten's 1-Second Clock Explanation After Michigan's 13-12 Escape

Updated

Updated · Detroit News · Sep 7

ESPN Pundits Blast Big Ten's 1-Second Clock Explanation After Michigan's 13-12 Escape

Q: Will college football adopt tenths of a second on game clocks to prevent another controversial ending like Michigan's stunning victory?

Probably not immediately, but the Michigan-Western Michigan ending is likely to increase pressure on college football to revisit the idea. Right now, NCAA rules do not use tenths on the visible game clock; playing time is kept in whole seconds. That means 0:01 can cover anything from just under a full second to a tiny fraction before expiration, which is exactly why the Michigan finish became so disputed. The Big Ten said its synced stadium clock showed 1 second left when the ball was touched, while NBC’s broadcast clock showed 0:00. Even Western Michigan officials, while accepting the ruling, said the process should be more transparent and better synced for viewers. There is growing support among analysts and rules experts for showing fractions of a second late in halves, much as basketball does. Similar proposals have already surfaced in the NFL, where the Eagles pushed unsuccessfully in 2023 and 2024 to display tenths late in each half. The argument is that tenths would make replay timing decisions easier to explain and harder to dispute. Still, adoption is far from certain. Changing the rule would require NCAA rules-committee approval and likely significant stadium-clock upgrades across college football. Cost and logistics helped sink the NFL proposals, and those same obstacles would face the NCAA. So the controversy may become an important catalyst, but there is no indication yet that college football is on the verge of adopting tenths-of-a-second clocks.

3 articles · Updated · Detroit News · Sep 7

Dan Orlovsky and Stephen A. Smith on Monday publicly rejected the Big Ten’s explanation for the final-second review that gave Michigan one more snap in its 13-12 win over Western Michigan.
The conference said the official clock still showed 1 second when a Western Michigan player touched the ball out of bounds, even though NBC’s on-screen clock appeared to hit 0:00 first.
Orlovsky called that account “nonsense” and said “everything about that feels like it’s lying,” while Smith said nobody should accept two conflicting clocks and called the ruling “an absolute joke.”
Western Michigan officials, despite losing on Bryce Underwood’s Hail Mary to JJ Buchanan, accepted the Big Ten’s video-and-audio review package, as did the Mid-American Conference.
The dispute keeps alive scrutiny of an ending that denied 27.5-point underdog Western Michigan what would have been the biggest win in program history.