On Wednesday, the university's president finally said the quiet part out loud. "Western Michigan University won that football game," Russ Kavalhuna told CBS Sports. The declaration came on the heels of the NCAA's decision to change replay rules around a result that nobody in charge seems willing to change.
College football has been embroiled in controversy over Michigan's 13-12 victory over Western Michigan, a game the Broncos led 12-7 until Big Ten officials added one second back to the clock. Michigan's Bryce Underwood then found J.J. Buchanan in the end zone on a 47-yard heave to give Michigan the win as time expired.
The NCAA issued a standard timing protocol on Tuesday, instructing replay officials to use "the embedded game clock contained within the program feed," a standard under which Western Michigan wins against Michigan, according to a memo obtained by ESPN. The MAC filed formal appeals Tuesday with the NCAA's FBS Oversight Committee and the College Football Playoff, asking both to recognize the Broncos as the winner. The NCAA has since answered that its playing rules contain no protocol for overturning the outcome of a game.
On Wednesday, the Big Ten expanded its in-broadcast replay program to include live audio between the referee and the replay official in every game officiated by its crews, not just on Friday nights. Meanwhile, Western Michigan has mostly focused on the future, embracing acceptance over outrage. It's a public approach that has brought heat on Kavalhuna, he told CBS Sports.
But he is not backing down. "Well, you know, I've taken some heat for this stance, but I still stand by it," he said. "Western Michigan University can't be the entity that is shaking its fist and saying we're the experts on these types of NCAA protocols.
I'm saying very often to my team and to my colleagues that we reject this kind of idea that our position is that we win or somebody cheated." Still, he believes Western Michigan won. WMU has had extensive conversations with MAC commissioner Jon Steinbreacher since Saturday's game. Kavalhuna released a statement following the MAC's unprecedented request that Western Michigan be declared the winner, but the president's statement wasn't as strong, nor did he request that the game's outcome be reversed.
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