For some reason, the FBS oversight committee released a statement on Wednesday that the proper review protocol wasn't followed in Michigan's 13-12 win over Western Michigan.
The FBS oversight committee also said that if the protocol had been followed, the outcome would have been different. That's technically true, but there is one thing that the NCAA is leaving out in its statement: the officials got the call right.
The Big Ten provided a copy of the official replay review. You can clearly see a second left on the stadium clock. The problem is that the NBC clock was screwed up. Dan Wetzel of ESPN explained this perfectly on the College Gameday Podcast, not that anyone cares about what actually happened.
All anyone cares about is that they saw 0 seconds on their TV screen (NBC was wrong). So instead of just explaining to people that the clock on their TV screens isn't official, the procedure now would be to play 59:59, which would been the case between Michigan football and Western Michigan.
What's really annoying is that some are already trying to use this as an excuse to drop Michigan in the AP Poll. Pat Forde even suggested the College Football Playoff selection committee could view it as a loss.
AP voters punishing Michigan are being hypocrites
Forde has a weird axe to grind against Michigan. Beyond that, it's hypocrisy. Whether it was the right call, a second was added. Michigan took advantage of it. It's not like the Wolverines got to try an extra point over again. They completed a Hail Mary.
If Western had defended it, this wouldn't even be a topic. AP voters have already punished Michigan because we all know that a team that started the season ranked 16th, that's 2-0, with a win over a team that was ranked 11th, would normally be slotted much higher.
Dropping Michigan would also be historically inconsistent. AP voters didn't punish Colorado for getting a fifth down in its win over Missouri during an 11-1-1 season that earned the Buffaloes the 1990 AP national title.
Missouri should have beaten Colorado. The Tigers pulled off a goal-line stand late in the game. However, Colorado wrongly received a fifth down, scored a touchdown, won the game, and eventually the national title.
Of course, after the result was the result, it would have been silly to treat Colorado as a two-loss team, even though that should have been the case. Western Michigan didn't get robbed. The correct procedure would have meant the wrong clock, but even if that wasn't true, any AP voters punishing Michigan are setting a dangerous precedent that has never existed.
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