A little-known NCAA replay rule reopened a game that appeared over, turning Western Michigan’s upset celebration into Michigan’s miracle escape.
Both head coaches, the Big Ten and Western Michigan President Russ Kavalhuna issued statements on the ending that saw Michigan turn a 12-7 defeat into a 13-12, walk-off win in Kyle Whittingham’s Wolverines debut.
Bryce Underwood’s 47-yard Hail Mary only happened after the Big Ten officiating crew reviewed the initial final play and ruled that because WMU safety Micah Davis leaped from out of bounds before he touched the ball, the clock was stopped at that moment and replay officials determined one second should be added back to the game clock.
Michigan football is 1-0 after controversy. Here’s what it means
Michigan is 1-0 after controversial Hail Mary to stun Western Michigan, Sept. 5, 2026, at Michigan Stadium. Here’s what it all means moving forward.
“It is just a discrepancy,” Kavalhuna said in a news conference alongside WMU coach Lance Taylor. “What the viewing public see and what the reviewing officials see are different. I used to be a federal prosecutor. I’ve looked into this pretty closely, and I don’t discern anything unfair or untoward in this process.”
USA TODAY Sports reached out to the three other Power conferences — ACC, Big 12 and SEC — Monday, Sept. 7; the Big 12 and SEC cited the NCAA Instant Replay Case Book as their baseline for handling all such situations. The ACC had not responded at time of publication.
Did the Big Ten get the call correct? Did the crew correctly interpret the rules as outlined in the 2026 NCAA Instant Replay Case Book?
USA TODAY Sports spoke with three active college football officials, a college football executive and a supervisor of officials to assess the situation.
“It wasn’t a good look, obviously, but in the end, replay is there for the integrity of the game,” one referee told USA TODAY Sports. “They can slow everything down to the absolutely deepest time frame. There is a technology the Big Ten uses that syncs the clock with real time of what’s going on on the field.
“It’s really every official on the field responsible for the clock on the last play,” he added. “You have three officials deep, the back judge, field judge and side judge, and they’re all watching the ball come down, so they’ve really got no idea on time. That’s why you have replay to do that.”
Here’s what the case book says:
“Criterion for Overturn ARTICLE 3: To overturn an on-field ruling, the replay official must be convinced beyond all doubt by clear and obvious video evidence through one or more video replays provided to the monitor. Without such clear and obvious video evidence, the replay official must uphold the ruling on the field. (Exception: Targeting rule 12-3-5-a).”
“Bottom line is, what we see on the TV screen is not the official clock,” the supervisor, who also had a long career officiating at the Power conference level, told USA TODAY Sports. “The official clock is the scoreboard. They sync all those clocks before the game; 45 minutes in, almost 60 minutes in, are you off a second? You could be. And that’s what happened.
“I think everybody’s seen what it was. You look at it and say, ‘OK, you got one last play.’ It’s incomplete. The defender stepped out of bounds first, leaps up and when he touches that ball, boom. That’s it. The game clock stops right there. Piqued my interest as soon as I saw it.”
The executive thought the game had ended.
“I thought the clock was at zero before the ball was touched, and if that’s the case … it’s ballgame,” the individual said. “With that being said, still stop the second Hail Mary!”
Everyone USA TODAY Sports spoke with for this story emphasized the replay crew — and the Big Ten’s replay center in Chicago — contained vastly more camera angles than ever shown on the NBC broadcast of the game.
One person pointed out how many camera angles were available from NBC’s broadcast Sunday, Sept. 6, of the Notre Dame-Wisconsin game at Lambeau Field.
Conferences utilize the services of DVSport essentially as the server for all football replay, the individual explained.
“I watched it many times. How many times have I seen it? I don’t know,” the person said. “But, I don’t get the game clock. I get what the service provides. We get every angle. There were 11 different camera looks in the Notre Dame-Wisconsin game, for example.
“When the clock’s more than five minutes, you don’t worry about it so much, but under five minutes it becomes much more acute. You stop it later on. There’s always a give-and-take as to how accurate it all is. A runner goes out of bounds, the game-clock stops when a referee signals to stop it and sometimes the referee is off a second or two.”
The NCAA Instant Replay Case Book specifically outlines instances subject to end-game review and that can result in time being added to the clock. No game may be extended if a team is trailing by more than eight points.
One official provided insight into the end-game protocols for the crew doing the on-field officiating.
“Protocol for on-field officials is tough because we rule what we see to the naked eye,” said the individual, with roughly a decade officiating college games. “Replay has the play-clock superimposed on the replay screen.
“But we must always wait for the replay officials to clear us before we can leave the field (at game’s end). I hope I am never in that position.”
Added another official, “This has happened several times. The TV is not always correct with the actual clock.”
That’s the point from the officiating supervisor, who also called on college athletics — especially college football — to do a better job with transparency in these situations. The individual specifically praised the ACC’s decision last season to take TV viewers inside the replay center and noted the Big 12 this year will do the same.
“What they get for review, coaches get (after games), people who evaluate officials; it’s the most phenomenal thing you’ve ever seen because it’s every play of every game in college football,” the individual said. “It’s D-I, D-II, right on down the line.
“So in the replay center, they can go back and get this thing to exact same point. Analyze when he was out of bounds and look at all those different angles to sync things up. If he had leapt from in-bounds, it would not have stopped until he came down in possession of the ball out of bounds or the ball came down to the turf. But, he stepped from out of bounds, and that’s the first thing replay would look at. If he’s the first to touch it, that’s when the game clock stops.”