The MAC Wants the Playoff to Count a Win Michigan Kept

The Mid-American Conference asked the College Football Playoff on Tuesday to treat Western Michigan as the winner of a game the NCAA says it cannot reverse. Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher’s letters aim at rankings and selection, not a reprint of the 13-12 box score from Saturday night at Michigan Stadium.

Replay had restored one second after a failed Hail Mary, and Bryce Underwood hit JJ Buchanan for a 47-yard touchdown on the extra snap. Steinbrecher now says that snap should never have been run.

The MAC Already Knows the Score Cannot Flip

Steinbrecher wrote that Big Ten replay officials used “the clock feed embedded within its replay system” instead of the game clock on the program feed. Had they used the program feed, he said, “no additional play would have been awarded, and Western Michigan would have won the game, 12-7.”

This was not a judgment regarding the proper amount of time to place on the clock. It was an error in the application of the established replay protocol governing this specific end-of-game timing situation.

Jon Steinbrecher, MAC commissioner, Tuesday statement

The conference then asked the NCAA’s FBS Oversight Committee and the College Football Playoff to recognize Western Michigan as the actual winner for rankings, evaluations, and selection deliberations.

Official Statement Regarding Western Michigan – Michigan Football Game

🗒️: https://t.co/eYw49T9ABR pic.twitter.com/LKXQ0qm5s9

— MACtion (@MACSports) September 8, 2026

The NCAA answered the same day. Football playing rules have no protocol for overturning a finished game, and the Oversight Committee “does not have the authority to overturn the outcome of a game.” Rule 1-1-3-b is older than replay: when the referee declares the game ended, the score is final.

Western Michigan president Russ Kavalhuna had already said as much on Sunday. The explanation he was given pointed to a clock discrepancy, and he added that he did not “discern anything unfair or untoward in this process.” He also said there was no process to appeal. Steinbrecher filed one anyway, and he aimed it at a body that still has a December decision to make.

One Group of 6 Bid Carries a $4 Million Floor

The 2026 playoff still has 12 teams. Four of those berths are reserved for the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC champions. A fifth is reserved for the highest-ranked Group of 6 team from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, or Sun Belt, and that team does not have to win its league. Notre Dame is in if it finishes in the top 12.

That is the slot a MAC champion, or a MAC team that simply outranks the rest of the Group of 6, is chasing. Steinbrecher’s letter to CFP executive director Rich Clark asked the selection committee to treat Western Michigan as the winner “in its evaluation and deliberations.” He wrote that he knows the committee does not ordinarily alter results recorded on the field. He also wrote that “the circumstances of this game are extraordinary.”

The most recent published participation rate, from the 2025-26 cycle, paid a conference $4 million for each playoff team that made the 12-team field, then another $4 million for a quarterfinal and $6 million for a semifinal or the title game. Expense coverage was $3 million per round in that cycle. For 2026-27 it is already set at $3.18 million per round; the rest of that year’s split will be finalized after the 2027 championship.

WHAT A CFP BID PAID LAST CYCLE

Those 2025-26 participation figures are the last ones the CFP has posted. Expense coverage rises to $3.18 million per round this coming cycle. For a Group of 6 league, the first $4 million is the check that changes an athletic budget. The exposure around it is the rest of the argument Steinbrecher is making without putting a second number on the page.

HOW THE 2026 FIELD IS BUILT

• Power 4 champions: Each gets an automatic bid regardless of ranking.
• Group of 6: One bid, to the highest-ranked team from those six leagues, champion or not.
• Notre Dame: In if it is ranked in the top 12.
• Byes: The four highest-ranked teams, not the four highest-ranked champions, get the first-round byes.

Western Michigan was the defending MAC champion walking into Michigan Stadium as a 27.5-point underdog. A win would have been the first in program history over the Wolverines. The committee’s own protocol tells members to separate otherwise comparable teams by strength of schedule and head-to-head results. A 12-7 road win over preseason No. 16 Michigan is a different resume line than a 13-12 loss on a second Hail Mary.

What the Replay Crew Used Instead of the Program Feed

Big Ten replay officials in the command center outside Chicago ruled that Western Michigan safety Micah Davis, No. 18, left his left foot out of bounds, then touched Underwood’s first heave with one second showing on a direct shot of the stadium clock. Contact from out of bounds stops the clock. They put a second back and Michigan ran one more play.

NBC’s program feed, the picture people at home had, showed 0:00 when the ball was touched. Underwood said he “definitely thought the game was over because there were zeroes on the clock.” Broncos players were already on the field. Kyle Whittingham, in his Michigan debut, said he “was pretty sure there was one second left.”

Mike Pereira, the former NFL official, said the working instruction in college, the NFL, and the UFL is to use the television video everyone sees when the command-center feed and the broadcast disagree. The point of that custom is to avoid a ruling that contradicts the clock on the air. The NCAA Instant Replay Case Book, as it stood on Saturday, did not write that custom down.

The Case Book did say replay may restore time only under these conditions: clear and obvious video evidence that time should have remained; in the fourth quarter, a score differential of eight points or less; and a three-second floor only when the clock would next start on the referee’s signal. A Hail Mary incompletion starts on the snap, so one second is enough if any time actually remained. Saturday’s fight was which picture of the clock counted, not whether one second is a legal remainder.

Western Michigan had taken a 12-7 lead on Dieter Kelly’s field goal with 35 seconds left, after a 20-play, 71-yard drive that ate 13:40. Michigan’s only touchdown before the last play had been Underwood’s 1-yard run on the opening series. Underwood finished 12 of 22 for 170 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Buchanan caught six balls for 126 yards and then the one that ended it.

WHERE OFFICIALS DISAGREE

• The Big Ten: A side-by-side of the play and a direct shot of the stadium clock showed one second when Davis touched the ball, and the conference is standing by that ruling with no further comment.
• The MAC and Pereira: The program-feed clock showed 0:00, and that is the feed replay is supposed to use when the pictures do not match.
• The Tuesday memo: The in-stadium clock remains official time, but a restore-or-adjust decision will be based on the embedded game clock in the program feed, or the broadcast graphic if the truck cannot embed a clock.

Hawk-Eye, the Big Ten’s replay system, keeps a game clock synced to the stadium. Two hours after the game the conference released video and audio from the replay booth. Steinbrecher’s Tuesday letter calls that clock unsynchronized with the program feed. The Big Ten calls it the clock it used.

Tuesday’s Memo Writes the Clock Rule the Case Book Lacked

Ron Snodgrass, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officials, sent conferences a memo on Tuesday that Matt Young, the secretary-rules editor, approved as a new case-book interpretation. “Recognizing the replay technology and available broadcast resources may vary among institutions, conferences, and game sites, it is necessary to establish a standard timing protocol that ensures consistency in the administration of all college football games,” the memo said.

The official time is still “the time displayed on the in-stadium game clock.” When replay has to restore or adjust time, “the replay official’s decision will be based on the embedded game clock contained within the program feed.” If the broadcaster cannot provide that, the official uses the game-clock graphic on the broadcast feed. “This timing protocol should be followed consistently at all institutions and game sites.”

Had that language governed Saturday, the NBC 0:00 would have ended it, and Western Michigan would have left Ann Arbor 12-7. The memo does not claim the Big Ten broke a sentence that was already in the Case Book. It writes the sentence now. Steinbrecher’s appeal still calls the program-feed rule “established” and “prescribed.” The document trail is that it became prescribed on Tuesday.

The Big Ten’s second statement on Tuesday was one sentence stacked on another: it stands by the statement issued after the game and by the replay officials’ determination, and it will have no further comment. Steinbrecher, asked about motive, said there was “no ill intent.” “It was a mistake in the protocol. It was unfortunate that it occurred. It changed the outcome of a game that would have been a tremendous victory for Western Michigan.”

Colorado Kept a Fifth Down and Cornell Gave One Back

College football has been here with a play that should not have been run. It has almost never moved the result after the referee left the field.

THE ONLY TWO PRECEDENTS THAT RHYME

1. November 16, 1940: Cornell, ranked second, scores on a fifth down to beat Dartmouth 7-3. Film confirms the extra play. Cornell wires Dartmouth and concedes, 3-0, at the cost of an unbeaten season.
2. October 6, 1990: Colorado scores on a fifth down at Missouri with two seconds left and wins 33-31. The NCAA says it has no authority to reverse the outcome. Colorado’s Bill McCartney declines to forfeit. The result stands, and Colorado wins the national title that season.
3. September 5, 2026: Michigan is awarded one second after a Hail Mary sails incomplete, then throws another. Official score: 13-12.
4. September 8, 2026: The MAC files with the NCAA and the CFP. The NCAA says it cannot reverse a game. Snodgrass issues the program-feed memo the same day.

The entire modern record is one voluntary concession and one frozen score. Nobody has had a win taken by a governing body. Steinbrecher is asking two of them to treat a 12-7 Western Michigan win as the working result even if the NCAA record stays 13-12.

Clark Must Take the Appeal to a Committee Steinbrecher Sits On

Clark said the letter arrived Tuesday and that he has not taken it anywhere yet. “We would have to bring that to the management committee to give guidance on how that should be considered,” he said. “We just got the letter today, so I haven’t even brought it to the management committee yet.”

The management committee is the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director. Steinbrecher is one of the 10. The CFP’s public comment was shorter: it received the letter, it is reviewing, and it has no additional comment.

The selection committee is a different room. It has 13 members, ranks 25 teams, and meets in person starting Nov. 2-3, then weekly through selection weekend on Dec. 4-6. Two of those members, Mark Dantonio and Chris Massaro, are the assigned point persons for gathering material on MAC teams. The protocol says they are not advocates. They are the people whose job is to make sure the committee has the facts.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The box score: Michigan 13, Western Michigan 12, final when the referee ended it.
• The NCAA’s power: No bylaw lets it reverse that score, and the Oversight Committee has said it cannot.
• The new clock rule: Restore-and-adjust decisions will use the program-feed clock from Tuesday on.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The CFP’s read: Whether the management committee tells the selection committee to treat Saturday as a Western Michigan win, a Michigan win with an asterisk, or a closed matter.
• The resume effect: Whether a 12-7 counting win would move Western Michigan, later this fall, relative to the other Group of 6 teams chasing that one bid.

Kavalhuna’s Sunday posture and Steinbrecher’s Tuesday letters are not the same document. The president was told there was no appeal and sounded ready to live with that. The commissioner spent the next two days building one that names Clark, the Oversight Committee, and “selection deliberations” in the same breath.

Michigan Still Had to Catch the Ball

The extra second only became a national argument because the next throw was caught. Both teams lined up. Underwood had to put the ball in a crowd 47 yards away. Buchanan, a 6-foot-4 Utah transfer, had to come down with it. Western Michigan had to defend it. If that ball hits the turf, the clock fight is a footnote in a 12-7 loss Michigan would have spent the week explaining.

The MAC heard the Big Ten’s explanation Saturday night and, with Kavalhuna, treated it as closed through Sunday. By Tuesday the same explanation was, in Steinbrecher’s words, a protocol error. That reversal is the part of the appeal that has to travel into a room of commissioners who also have to live with Big Ten replay the rest of the year.

Whittingham called it a game that “will go down in Michigan history,” then added he did not know “if it’s in a positive way.” Underwood’s first read of the night was the one on the NBC clock. The second read is the one the Big Ten booth used. The third will belong to a committee that does not meet for rankings until November.

The box score still reads Michigan 13, Western Michigan 12. The letters ask a different set of people to read it the other way when they fill the one Group of 6 chair in a 12-team bracket.