Saturday’s improbable season-opening win by Michigan over Western Michigan was fueled by a controversial replay decision that seemed to mistakenly award the home team one final second after what appeared to be the last play.
The Big Ten has spoken on the matter — and it has released raw video of the replay process.
“Following video review, it was determined Western Michigan’s #18 started his jump from an established out-of-bounds position (left foot) and made contact with the ball with one second remaining on the clock,” the Big Ten said. “As shown in the provided video of what was viewed during the replay process, a side-by-side view of the play and the game clock, using a direct shot of the game clock in the stadium, was used to determine the final ruling.
“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.
“Per NCAA Football rule 4-2-3-a, ‘A ball not in player control, other than a kick that scores a field goal, is out of bounds when it touches the ground, a player, a game official or anything else that is out-of-bound [sic], or that is on or outside a boundary line,’ and thus the clock is stopped.”
The attached video includes a conversation regarding the conclusion that a Western Michigan player was touching the ball with one second on the clock. Which raises the question — why not make these conversations available in real time?
It’s a perfect example of the value of the ACC/UFL approach. If the audience had heard the discussions that resulted in the decision to give Michigan one more play, there would have been less surprise when the decision was announced.
Of course, there’s a lingering question as to how the NBC sync of the two shots showed zero seconds and the Big Ten sync showed one. Seeing and hearing the conversations about the situation nevertheless help to take some steam out of the widespread conclusion that the chicanery delivered Michigan’s mulligan.
And that further proves the value of transparency. If the Big Ten had been using it last night, the current situation would have become less of a big mess. The NFL should be learning from situations like this, and expediting the effort to eliminate the perception that game-changing decisions are being made arbitrarily or, even worse, deliberately.
