NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay calls out Big Ten for controversial clock change

Michigan’s controversial win over Western Michigan just took another interesting turn, following Bryce Underwood’s Hail Mary touchdown to JJ Buchanan. NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay joined the broadcast to provide perspective on what happened.

“Our producer, and he tells us that our inset clock is in sync…is the actual stadium clock,” McAulay said to NBC’s Noah Eagle. “The ball isn’t even close to touching a player when it goes to zero. Now, their system, their Hawkeye system apparently either was, had, had different sync, a different sync or whatever, and they came up with one second when it touched the players. I don’t see how that happened, assuming our clock is correct. It is, it, it is clearly not touching a player. The ball is clearly still in the air with, when the clock goes to zero on, on our screen. So, you know, the Big Ten’s gonna have to tell a lot of us how did they get to one second on this play.”

McAulay wasn’t the only sports analyst perplexed by what occurred. CBS Sports’ Richard Johnson wanted an explanation as to how the referees came to the conclusion that there needed to be one more second on the clock following Underwood’s first Hail Mary throw.

“Western Michigan got robbed? I mean, B. Mac just said it. Somebody’s got to sit down with me, and maybe you got to lay it out and explain it to me like I’m 5 years old, fellas. Someone’s got to sit and look me dead in my face and explain to me how you’re putting 1 second back on that clock before any player in the back of that end zone touched the ball. Inbounds, out of bounds. It was at triple zeros. Based on what the broadcast showed us, I do not understand how you’re putting a second back on the clock there. I don’t get it.”