Mike Pereira says NFL would have ruled in favor of Western Michigan victory

The most controversial ending in Week 1 of the college football season, and maybe the most controversial football ending we’ve seen in years, came in Ann Arbor when the Michigan Wolverines made the most of their second chance against the Western Michigan Broncos.

Western Michigan looked like they had pulled off a historic 12-7 upset as Michigan’s Hail Mary attempt at the end of the game was incomplete with the clock at zero. However, the Big Ten ruled that there was still one second left, despite millions of viewers around the country seeing and believing the game was over. Of course, Bryce Underwood then completed a touchdown pass to JJ Buchanan to improbably win the game 13-12 with the extra second given to them.

While everyone, including NBC’s own rules analyst Terry McAulay, was in disbelief, the Big Ten explained that the real clock showed one second left when a Broncos defender touched the ball coming from out of bounds.

That raises the natural question as to how there can be a discrepancy between the clock everyone sees on game broadcasts and the one the officials are actually using. But that apparently can happen, according to NFL on Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira. But his explanation of how the NFL would handle it isn’t going to help Western Michigan fans cope with the bizarre situation.

Pereira told The Athletic that if there is a discrepancy between the official clock and the game broadcast clock, the NFL instructs officials to use the clock everyone sees, not their top-secret version.

“It is my understanding that if there is a discrepancy between the video and replay command center versus the television network video that everybody sees, that replay is to use the TV video. And that is the same protocol in the NFL, in the UFL. It’s the same. You use the footage that everybody sees if there is a discrepancy,” Pereira said.

Naturally, the NCAA doesn’t have any actual guidance on what to do in this situation.

Western Michigan and the MAC have handled the situation with a ton of grace and class, even though pretty much everyone else around the sport has maintained a sense of indignity and righteous outrage.

Of course, it’s easy to see why that outrage continues. The fact that there could be two different clocks, or that the official clock and the broadcast clock can become misaligned, makes no sense to anyone. And maybe this is a true one-in-a-million scenario, but it’s hugely controversial and invites all sorts of tinfoil hat conspiracies to come to life.

Surely this is an instance where the NCAA should put in place a rule, as the NFL does, and use the television clock if there are inconsistencies. And for the Big Ten and other conferences, it’s time to make all their replay discussions available on television broadcasts to bring full transparency to every review process.

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