Essentials Inside The Story
- Western Michigan was about to pull a historic upset over the Michigan Wolverines when controversial officiating turned the game over.
- After the Saturday game, the Broncos' President and players addressed what the loss meant.
- While the Big Ten has announced the changes, it means nothing to the fans that feel betrayed.
For 109 years, Western Michigan has been trying to upend its rival, the Michigan Wolverines. But in their nine meetings, the Big Ten team has come out with a win every time. Last weekend, however, with the Broncos leading 12-3, that upset was almost in their hands. Their friends and family had already sent messages, posted updates, and made videos. By the time the final buzzer rang, those messages and posts were all deleted.
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Quarterback Broc Lowry and Cornerback Jarvarius Sims, distraught by what had just happened, could not even make it off the field. But just four days in, they turned their pain into fuel. After all, their president, Russ Kavalhuna, has already told the team not to believe that they will either win or that somebody has cheated. Even though the NCAA cannot overturn a game’s result once it is finished, the Big Ten conference has made one amendment to its existing inclusion rules.
“Beginning Saturday, all football broadcasts from Big Ten venues that include Big Ten replay and on-field officials will be able to feature live audio between the game referee and replay official during reviews, alongside video of the game footage being viewed during the process and a view inside the state-of-the-art Big Ten Replay Center,” the Big Ten announced on its X account Wednesday. “This is an extension of the September 1 announcement that the Big Ten would offer enhanced replay reviews during Friday night games this season.”
On September 1, the conference had already announced that it would be enhancing replay reviews for Friday night games moving forward. But with this, Saturday games in Week 2 will also get into the fold. Here is the first set of non-conference matchups to show this feature:
- Indiana vs. Howard
- Washington vs. Utah State
- Michigan State vs. Eastern Michigan
- Purdue vs. Wake Forest
- Nebraska vs. Bowling Green
- Wisconsin vs. Western Illinois
- USC vs. Louisiana
By opening up audio and video during reviews, the conference is giving fans greater visibility into how replay decisions are made. The decision comes on the heels of the controversial finish to the Michigan-Western Michigan game.
Western Michigan was leading 12–7 with the clock winding down. Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood launched a desperate Hail Mary pass that fell incomplete out of bounds. The stadium clock hit zero, and Western Michigan celebrated what seemed like a historic upset. But the officials stepped in to review the play, changing everything.
During the review, replay officials determined that Western Michigan defender Micah Davis touched the ball while out of bounds with one second remaining on the clock feed embedded in the replay system.
The referee put that single second back on the board. With one final chance, Underwood threw another Hail Mary, this time connecting with JJ Buchanan for a 47-yard touchdown to steal the win for the Wolverines. The backlash was inevitable.
Three days later, the Mid-American Conference (MAC) formally appealed the game’s result on behalf of Western Michigan. The conference argued that Big Ten replay officials broke protocol by relying on a clock feed embedded in the replay system rather than the game clock displayed on the program feed. And even though the Broncos are past this controversial loss, their President has made his thoughts clear on what he thinks about the result.
Western Michigan opens up about their controversial loss to the Michigan Wolverines
After the conference made its statement on Wednesday, Russ Kavalhuna told CBS Sports what he truly felt about the game day:
“Western Michigan University won that football game.”
Even after the night was over, the disbelief carried over to Sunday. As the players entered the Bill Brown Alumni Football Center to work out, they were still processing what had just happened.
“You become almost numb,” Western Michigan coach Lance Taylor said. “It was surreal. Did this really happen?”
Sims even addressed his teammates in their first practice since the Wolverines loss, motivating them to unleash all that anger on the next opponents.
“It was just stunning,” Sims said. “When you want to win so bad and you sacrifice everything for the team and it don’t go in your favor, especially the way it ended, it was very painful.”
Although the score will not change, the controversy has been followed by a major expansion of the Big Ten’s replay transparency program. But the announcement of the new rule did little to calm down college football fans. Many folks feel the sudden shift to transparency is just a way for the conference to cover its tracks.
Fans rally against the Big Ten despite their latest amendment
One fan started, “So we can watch and listen to them cheat?”
Others pointed out that this rule change is basically a guilty confession from the conference: “B1G got caught trying to save Michigan and no one trusts them. This is their feeble attempt at trying to restore confidence.”
Many focused their anger on the conference’s refusal to actually fix the mistake. A frustrated viewer posted, “They are basically admitting they screwed Western Michigan, taking steps to “avoid” this in the future (yeah right), but not overturning the blatantly wrong decision. 🤦🏻♂️”
A separate group of fans isn’t buying the new transparency era at all, seeing it as nothing more than a shield against future criticism.
One fan rolled their eyes at the timing, saying, “How convenient! They got caught cheating for Michigan and now think transparency will save them.”
Ultimately, the consensus is that the damage is already done, and no amount of live audio can fix it. As another post summarized, “Too late now they cheated.”