The NCAA says the outcome of Saturday's game between Michigan and Western Michigan will stand, after the Mid-American Conference filed an official appeal arguing a final second should never have been added to the game clock.
The MAC sent official appeals to the NCAA FBS Oversight Committee and to the College Football Playoff on Tuesday, arguing replay protocol was not correctly followed when officials added that final second. The conference requested Western Michigan be recognized as the actual winner.
The NCAA denied the appeal, saying there is no process to overturn the outcome of a game.
The controversy stems from the final moments of Saturday's game at Michigan Stadium. When the clock appeared to hit zero, it looked as though Western Michigan had won — until officials reviewed the game clock and added one second back.
With that extra second, quarterback Bryce Underwood connected with JJ Buchanan for a touchdown, giving Michigan the victory.
At the center of the dispute: the game clock on the TV broadcast showed zero, while the Big Ten replay system showed one final second remaining. Replay protocol, the MAC argues, requires the game clock on the program feed to be used.
Michigan students who witnessed the moment described the scene inside the stadium.
"Seeing the one second go down, everyone around me was like 'ah, games over.' So I started to walk home and then all of a sudden we see the one second clock go back up," Rushil Kagithala, a Michigan senior, said.
"That one second left when they caught it it was absolute chaos, just pure happiness, pure joy," Lucas Trivedi, a Michigan sophomore, said.
The game has been a constant topic of conversation on campus since Saturday.
"I mean we were talking about it in our Spanish class before and after," Katelyn Simpson, a Michigan junior, said. "It’s a huge topic everyone's talking about.”
Not everyone shared that joy. Bruce Frandsen, a Western Michigan fan, said he was devastated by the outcome. However, he as also come to accept the outcome and is looking forward to the rest of Western's season.
"I was very upset at the end of the game, no question," Frandsen said. "Early on we heard that all the clocks and such are synced and there shouldn't be any discrepancies, but then there was."
Western Michigan's president and head coach had said during a Sunday press conference that they would not appeal. It was the MAC, the conference to which Western Michigan belongs, that ultimately filed the appeals.
Despite the controversy, many Michigan students said they do not expect the result to change.
"I played football in high school, there was terrible calls all the time, they don't go back on the refs word," Trivedi said.
"It's a final result in a football game, you can't really go back on that," Gru Yerramalli, a Michigan sophomore, said.
"You can hate the way it changed, but that's the way the game ended," Dominic Sarti, a Michigan sophomore, said.
Not all students agreed. Alena Kadaj, a Michigan freshman, said she believes the footage deserves another look.
"I think they should appeal and review the footage, because it was a really quick decision." Kadaj said.
With the NCAA's ruling now final, the clock controversy is unlikely to be resolved on the field — but the debate over that improbable final second shows no signs of fading in Ann Arbor.
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