Michigan-WMU outcome was ‘a perfect storm'

Andrew Perloff and Paul Pabst discuss why the controversial ending to Michigan's win over Western Michigan was "a perfect storm" View More Video Transcript It's a layered topic, Paul, but take me back to Saturday night. What was your reaction in real time when Michigan won on the Hail Mary? So you're watching at home. I'm watching in a big bar where there's TVs everywhere. Yeah. So you can't really hear what's going on. And Western Michigan is staying in that game the whole way, and they force Michigan to be in a do or die situation with a Hail Mary. Throw- Underwood throws the ball, ball goes out of bounds. Zeroes. The refs, "It's over Johnny." And the, they start running on the field. And so, like, Michigan fans at the bar I was at were, like, crying in their beer, and other people were cheering because Western Michigan is just a great story. Look, it's, it's over. There's zeroes. Why wouldn't you celebrate? I would be on the way back to Kalamazoo. But then there just seemed to be this pause, and you see a K- Kyle Whittingham of Michigan talking to the refs, and then the refs are huddling. And whenever refs are huddling, it's never good- for the other team. Yeah, I went straight to anger, I'll be honest. Yeah. And I, I was very frustrated because I, I was rooting for the Cinderella. I was rooting for Western Michigan. Right. I thought Michigan was disappointing from the get-go. I did not like the way their offense was moving. So I was rooting for them, and I was like, "This is great. Got to stay up and watch this awesome upset." And I felt robbed, and I didn't even go to Western Michigan. So they start lining up for the second- Yeah Hail Mary. And it almost felt like a kicker, you know, they call time out to freeze him, and he gets a second look at it. Yeah. Bryce Underwood got a second look and threw it to the front of the end zone. Yeah. And before the ball even came up, we're looking at each other, the friends watching the game, "Oh, y- of course Michigan's gonna win it here. After this controversy, of course he hits the guy in the front end and it's over." You know, that's kind of why I'm giving the Big Ten a slight pass here, Paul, because it was a perfect storm. How many times in, have we seen this where there was an argument over one second? And what are the odds of you hitting the Hail Mary? Even with a mulligan, it's still a very low percentage play. Well, I think what still is, outstanding to people is why the replay was called for- Yeah in the first place. Did Kyle Whittingham call for it? I think people at home didn't even know there's two clocks in college football. I think everyone knows the refs keep backup time. I always thought that was a backup plan in case the scoreboard went down. I thought NBC- or ESPN or ABC controlled the time, and what you saw on the field was it. So what would your, solution be if this case comes up again? Well, I, I guess you would say what happens on the field is the final answer, and you have to get it dialed in, the two clocks, before the game ends because parsing through that and the guy's foot on the back line, it doesn't match what people see at home. And when people at home see that the Big Ten office was involved in the rigpl- replay, this wasn't a Big Ten on Big Ten crime. This is- Ah Western Michigan. This is a once in a lifetime win that felt like it was taken from them. Yeah, I saw, Fox's, Mike Pereira, of course, officiating expert, say that in the NFL if this comes up you always go to the TV copy. Yes. And I think, I think the, I hope the Big Ten learned go to whatever the TV says because people wanna see what's actually happening. You can't have, quote-unquote, a secret clock. It's not a secret clock, but you have to defer to the TV clock. So next time this happens, whatever NBC has, that should be it. Right. And what happened all night, at least on social media- Yeah and people who watch college football and live on social media, they were waiting for the Big Ten statement. Right. And the Big Ten statement came out a couple hours later, and it came out in this weird font that looked like something from Stranger Things. And it didn't satisfy anyone's curiosity because it felt like the Big Ten was getting their house in order for this statement. But the average fan thinks that that game was stolen. Look at that font there pearlot. That looks like a, that looks like- a book from the '80s, like a crime novel. Yeah, for some reason the statement didn't really help the Big Ten. Now, let me ask you this question, Paul. When you look at all of college football, there's a lot of conferences. It's, so different from the NFL where everything comes through one office. Right. I, I'm kind of wondering, is this a growing pain of college football where you see NIL now, you know, you get a Western Michigan against a Michigan. That's gonna be competitive. Now you have all these different conferences and all these different networks. Do they need to really solidify this and have a plan going forward? Well, it, that's a bigger picture. Yeah. There is no unifying body in college football. Yeah. The NCAA doesn't oversee the clocks. Right. It's, it's, like, the conference and the networks, and it's different from game to game. You know- I'm setting you up to be college football czar here, Paul. I say everything has to come under one roof. A lot- So situations like this, the Big Ten doesn't have a different thing than the ACC and the SEC. Like, ACC has the immediate you get to hear the officials now. So I, I think that transparency's the number one thing, and there are a lot of lessons out of this. Well- A lot has to be different next time. It was very interesting post-game. The Western Michigan head coach was He was not, he didn't go scorched earth. Yeah. He said, "I'll let others fight my battle for me." But it w- it was also interesting because Western Michigan got paid $1.5 million to be there. They're coming back to Michigan in 2029. I don't think Michigan's ever going to Kalamazoo to play a home- Yeah and home. But it, it felt like one of those moments that's gone forever. That's true, but, can a loss be a win in the sense that when they're picking the Group of 5 playoff team, and if Western Michigan runs the table, they have Boise on September 26th, Paul, who is b- a lot of people's favorite to get that spot. If Western Michigan runs the table, will everybody count this as a win? You know what I'm saying? Like- Yes, it'll be a- Yeah and the other way, this is a horrible win for Michigan. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh. This, this might as well have been a loss. This is worse than a loss. Boise had a better week than Michigan in, in- Yeah. No, Michigan, if Michigan's at a tie for that last playoff spot, I think the committee's gonna remember back in the beginning of September and say, "No." Yeah. "We're not letting them get away with anything." Right. You could win and still lose- in college football. A lot more games to chop- Close