ITS OFFICIAL: WESTERN MICHIGAN WON 12-7 PER NCAA RULES CLARIFICATION
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The NCAA memo sets a simple rule for these last-second clock reviews: replay officials must use the clock that appears on the TV broadcast feed (the “program feed”), not a separate clock inside their own replay computer.
Here is how that rule applies to the Western Michigan–Michigan game:
1. Western Michigan led 12-7. Michigan threw a Hail Mary that fell incomplete in the end zone.
2. Both the stadium scoreboard and the NBC broadcast clock showed 0:00 when the ball became dead.
3. Under the memo’s protocol, those two clocks are the ones that count. Replay officials were required to look at the broadcast feed clock.
4. That clock already read 0:00, so there was no “clear and obvious” evidence that time remained. Officials therefore could not put a second back on the clock.
5. The referee would have declared the game over. Final score: Western Michigan 12, Michigan 7.
Instead, the replay crew used a different, unsynchronized clock from their own system that still showed 1 second.
That is the step the new memo now forbids.
A memo, obtained by The Athletic, from the NCAA's secretary-rules editor and expected to go out to conferences and officials, clarifies the protocol to be used "When a replay review requires time to be restored ..." in a game.