Sports

New Frame-By-Frame Video Proves Big Ten Actually Made The Correct Clock Decision To Give Michigan One Second

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Michigan Western Michigan Game Clock Video Sync One Second Controversy Hail Mary Time
iStockphoto / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Michigan barely escaped with a win over Western Michigan on the first full weekend of college football. The Wolverines were the beneficiary of a controversial clock decision that allowed them to throw another Hail Mary with one second remaining.

It looks the Big Ten officials actually got it right…

A new frame-by-frame video of the chaotic college football finish shows the exact decimal count of the game clock synced with the penultimate play of the game. If the time shows anything but 0:00, one final play is then granted to the offense!

Western Michigan beat Michigan… until it didn’t.

The Broncos traveled to Ann Arbor as 27.5-point underdogs. They trailed the Wolverines by only one point at halftime. Western Michigan took the lead in the fourth quarter. Michigan was down to its final play— or so it seemed.

Bryce Underwood (who did not play up to his eight-figure NIL deal) threw a Hail Mary to the end zone as time appeared to expire. It looked like the pass fell incomplete with zeros on the clock. There was no time remaining. Game over.

The four-score underdogs defeated the No. 16-ranked team in the country on the road. The Kyle Whittingham era began at 0-1.

And then it didn’t.

I was actually at a wedding (boo) when this all went down. I was watching the game on my phone and I turned it off when the ball hit the ground. Just a few moments later, I was tapped on the shoulder. Michigan had completed a Hail Mary to win the game.

What happened?!

Big Ten officials went back to the replay. They determined the game was not over! There was one second remaining. It appeared as though Western Michigan was robbed of a win. All of the television video made it seem like the game was over.

That was not the case. The Big Ten put one second back on the clock. The Wolverines completed a Hail Mary as the official game clock expired to defeat the Broncos. There may not be a more controversial decision all season.

A new frame-by-frame video proves the Big Ten actually got the clock right.

The Big Ten released the following statement after the game. It stood by its decision.

Unfortunately, as unfortunate as it is to be swindled out of an epic Week 1 upset, a new video shows that it was the correct ruling. There was approximately 0.03 seconds remaining on the clock when the ball hit the ground on the second-to-last play of the game.

The two camera angles are synced to the visible stadium clock. This is how the video is explained by @spegg08 on X:

The clock I use here is derived from the literal game clock on the scoreboard, visible on the left side of the above video. The timer I used starts at the first frame it switches from 8->7.

The decimals I used were to determine when the clock hit 0. Yes, I know that they don’t display decimals in football. That is not the point of this at all. I’m not counting imaginary decimals after the clock hit 0… For the clock to hit 0, 7 seconds have to pass, as I hope you would understand. So the game clock would not display 0 until 0.00.

Below is the reference used to sync the 2 footages to within a frame. 1 frame at 29.97 FPS is 0.03337 seconds. So even with the uncertainty within the frames there would still have been 1 second on the clock at contact.

— @spegg08 / X

Here is another example of the syncopation to use as a visual reference point:

That settles it. Michigan is 1-0. Western Michigan is 0-1. On to Week 2.