John Fanta on NBC Credit: NBC
By Megan Armstrong on

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The Western Michigan Broncos humiliated the Michigan Wolverines for 59 minutes and 59 seconds on Saturday night. Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood heaved a Hail Mary, which sailed out of the back of the end zone as time expired. For a moment, the Broncos celebrated the 12-7 upset, and NBC’s Noah Eagle submitted an early candidate for call of the year.

All of that is now lost to the sands of time.

Game officials reviewed the play and added one second back onto the clock. Underwood’s second Hail Mary attempt found JJ Buchanan for a touchdown, and Michigan somehow prevailed with a controversial 13-12 victory.

Nobody understood where officials found that one second to add back to the clock. NBC rules analyst Terry McAuley couldn’t even explain it. The Big Ten issued a formal statement and released video of the internal review process. Western Michigan and the Mid-American Conference accepted the Big Ten’s explanation and the game’s result. But the masses remained perturbed, as voiced by Josh Pate.

Sunday brought more college football, but Michigan’s fishy triumph lingered. As such, NBC addressed the situation during halftime of the Apple Cup between Washington and Washington State.

Nicole Auerbach and Chris Simms provided commentary on the highlight package from Michigan-Western Michigan. Auerbach noted that Underwood’s first Hail Mary hit a player out of bounds.

“Yeah, pretty crazy,” Simms said. “I mean, we know it’s so controversial. They put the second back on. I think the thing that bothers me more than anything is just that we need to be more concise on the clock that the Big Ten is using […] and then what the players and the TV viewers are seeing.”

Then, John Fanta offered a formal statement on NBC’s behalf.

“Now, the official time of the game is kept by the Big Ten,” Fanta said. “Our cameras are not the official arbiter of timekeeping within the game. That is the Big Ten and game officials’ responsibility. After the game last night, the Big Ten released a statement and raw video from its replay process that showed how and why the decision was made.”

“On NBC, John Fanta says the official game time is kept by the Big Ten and that cameras are not the official timekeeping,” Chris Vannini of The Athletic posted on X. “That did not really clear things up. No explanation of what a broadcast’s clock camera is or the purpose of it then. Is there some secret other clock?”

“The only person who has actually explained the Michigan clock situation is Western Michigan’s president, who said Tony Petitti told him there’s a ‘known discrepancy’ between the clocks,” Vannini wrote in a separate post. “I do not know why NBC or the Big Ten aren’t explaining this.”

As of now, the Big Ten limits “access to live audio between the game referee and replay official during reviews” to Friday game broadcasts, per Mike Florio. But after this fiasco, the Big Ten may want to explore expanding transparent replay to all games.

About Megan Armstrong

Since first getting published as a student by the Kansas City Star in 2013, Megan Armstrong has gone wherever curiosity and stories have taken her, specializing in sports, media, music, and culture coverage. She also has an extensive background in interviewing and profiling public figures. Her work has appeared in Billboard, Boardroom, Bleacher Report, Esquire, GQ, GRAMMY.com, NYLON, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, UPROXX, and elsewhere.

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