I suffer from a condition called “Justice sensitivity dysphoria” – basically I have a hard time letting unjust things go.
Such as, the ending to the Michigan-Western Michigan football game Saturday night. To recap, the heavy underdog Broncos went into the home of the Wolverines, a Big 10 Conference stalwart (that gets important in just a second, pardon the pun), turned aside a Hail Mary attempt when the clock ran out to earn a 12-7 win, only for a replay team to find one second left on the clock to give Michigan another chance to improbably score – which it did.
The uproar has been negatively massive – including mine. As some viewer over a thousand miles away I have no dog in the fight, but it exposes a new problem for a college football landscape that really doesn’t need another one right now.
There’s a lot to hate about it. But we should be directing it where it belongs – and not where it doesn’t. For instance. Don’t hate on Michigan fans (except the ones who are all, “Shut up whiner, we won, Go Blue!” who’ve proven they can’t mind their own business because they have neither mind nor business). They didn’t ask for their team to play poorly against a MAC opponent; and 99% of them, and UM players, thought the game was over after the first Hail Mary. (By the way, have you ever seen a game with more than one of them?)
And don’t hate on the referees. They were ready to leave the field, until the lead ref likely got word in his earpiece that the replay control booth was reviewing the clock after the play.
And don’t hate on the NCAA. Many people (including me in an emotional state following the late game Saturday) implored its leadership to reverse the outcome, as it wasn’t a judgment call – minutes after the ruling we were sure it was a mistake. It has a rule stating the score of a game that the referees declare ended is final.
But it’s not like people listen to them anyway. For the last few years, judges across the country have made legal rulings against the NCAA – regarding its own sports and rules – and told it to sit down and STFU.
So who should we hate on? By process of elimination, it’s the Big 10.
Its own “Replay Center” was who called down to officials that it was reviewing whether the clock did indeed ran out. That’s who, using its own timing, found the additional second for another play.
The Big 10, the MAC, and even NBC, who acknowledged that “The official time of the game is kept by the Big 10”, all issued statements saying that. Those statements changed nobody’s minds. It was like letting the robber explain why he didn't rob the bank.
Where’s The Justice?
Those explanations concluded this: the “real” clock – one not seen by the entire broadcast crew, announcing team or the 100,000 people inside the stadium, which includes the players and coaches – was kept by a conference representing one of two the teams involved in the contest, and made a call benefitting that team.
That's a problem. If there's some "official" clock that those playing the game can't see, then what are we doing?
If we don’t really know exactly how much time is left in the game, or when it’s going to officially end …then congratulations, Big 10. You’ve just soccer-ed football.
This is a terrible, terrible look for you. Going forward, when a referee declares a ballgame over and everyone else involved asks, "Are your suuuuuuure?," that's gonna be your fault.
Flip the circumstances. If Western Michigan throws that last pass, there isn’t upwards of three minutes spent looking for a phantom second to run another play. The ball hits the ground, the refs signal the end of the game and they high tail it to their dressing room.
And the sick thing is, it’s going to happen again. Maybe in another non-conference game, or maybe in conference play when the Big 10 is working to protect the playoff chances of one of its teams.
If there’s any justice, AP pollsters will recognize what should have happened and not rank former No. 16 Michigan in their polls Tuesday.
Or better yet … if they really want to install some justice … they will rank Western Michigan.
