Michigan cornerback Smith Snowden (3) celebrates with his teammates after they beat Western Michigan on a Hail Mary touchdown pass with time expired at Michigan Stadium.
Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images
On Saturday evening, the Michigan football program picked up a highly controversial home win over Western Michigan to open up their season for 2026. Michigan was in a dogfight throughout the game, but ended up winning on a Hail Mary after officials controversially added one second back on the clock after a previous Hail Mary attempt failed.
Many fans felt that the game should have ended after the first deep ball fell incomplete, and recently, NBC Sports analyst Mike Florio broke down how the situation would have played out differently at the NFL level.
“The game-winning Hail Mary touchdown reception by J.J. Buchanan never would have happened under NFL rules, because NFL rules account for the possibility of a razor-thin margin between the clock being at one second and the clock showing triple zeroes,” noted Florio.
“An on-field ruling that time expired during or after the last play of any half, or of an overtime period in the regular season, or of an overtime half in the postseason, is reviewable by the Replay Official only when the visual evidence demonstrates that the clock should have stopped with two or more seconds remaining,” states the rulebook.
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Question 1 of 4
Ohio State won that 2024 season national title game by beating which storied independent program?
This certainly would have prevented the Wolverines from getting off another play in this game, but thankfully for Michigan fans, this game was played at the college level (although the lines are becoming increasingly blurred as former NFL players have been infiltrating that sport as well in recent weeks).
The clarification is unlikely to bring much solace to Western Michigan fans, who feel they were hosed in front of the entire country in this one.
Meanwhile, the Wolverines can't exactly be encouraged by their performance vs a much less talented opponent, despite eventually being gifted the win.