Western Michigan was one second away from a huge upset of Michigan on Saturday night. But then officials added one second to the clock , and then Michigan's Bryce Underwood completed a miraculous Hail Mary touchdown to JJ Buchanan. Wolverines fans stormed the field and that was that.
But let's go back to the second that was added back to the clock. Why was that? What was the reasoning? The Big Ten Conference answered that with a lengthy statement to explain it.
"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 statement began. "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."
There was more about how replay cameras are synced and the rule cited here: "'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, or that is on or outside a boundary line.' and thus the clock is stopped."
In other words: Western Michigan's Micah Davis had started out out of bounds, so when he touched the ball and there was apparently one second on the clock, the play was whistled dead at that point.
What a wild night.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Why refs added 1 second to Michigan vs. WMU clock before Hail Mary, per Big Ten
