Western Michigan Won’t Appeal the Michigan Clock Controversy, and the Reason Is Brutal

Carlos Garcia September 8, 2026

Western Michigan Won't Appeal the Michigan Clock Controversy, and the Reason Is Brutal

Western Michigan looked for a way to appeal the ending of Saturday’s game at Michigan. There is no such thing.

School president Russ Kavalhuna said as much at a Sunday press conference, and the quote is bleak in its simplicity.

“I did want to find a way to appeal that decision but there is none.”

That is college football’s officiating accountability system in one sentence. A game gets decided by a disputed clock ruling, and the aggrieved school’s only recourse is a press conference.

What happened

Western Michigan appeared to have pulled off a 12-7 upset in the Big House. Bryce Underwood’s desperation heave was in the air as the clock hit zero, and no replay angle showed time remaining.

Officials put one second back on the clock. Michigan got another snap, converted a Hail Mary, and won 13-12.

The Big Ten later stated that by its clock, Michigan should have been granted another play. The conference did not explain why the stadium clock and the clock officials used to make the decision showed different things. That discrepancy is the entire controversy, and it remains unaddressed.

The coach handled it better than the sport deserved

Lance Taylor could have burned the whole thing down. Instead the Western Michigan head coach refused to blame the officials at all.

“The lesson here is not making excuses for the outcome of the game,” Taylor said. “Ultimately, the refs did not cost this game.”

He added that leaning on the excuse would let his team “get bitter instead of get better.”

That is an extraordinary thing to say roughly 18 hours after having a signature win taken away. Taylor had every justification to torch the Big Ten and he chose to coach his football team instead.

The structural problem is real

Here is what should bother everyone regardless of who they root for. A MAC program went into Michigan Stadium, outplayed a Big Ten team for sixty minutes, and lost on a ruling that the conference office cannot fully explain.

Those games matter enormously to schools like Western Michigan. They shape recruiting, fundraising and institutional attention for years. Michigan gets a bad win it will forget by October. Western Michigan loses something it cannot get back.

And there is no appeal, no review, no mechanism of any kind. The result goes in the book and everyone moves on.

The Broncos deserve better than sympathy

They played well enough to win a game they will not be credited with winning. Taylor’s response ensured his program came out of the weekend looking like the more serious operation of the two.

That is not much. It is also the only thing available to them.

Sources

Carlos Garcia

A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.