Michigan Wins a Football Game by One Second, Which Is, Technically, a Second

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan won its Saturday football game 13-12, a result that was, in the end, decided by a single second, a unit of time so small that it is normally used to measure the pause between “yes” and “absolutely.”

The second in question was added back to the game clock after a review, following a first Hail Mary attempt by quarterback Bryce Underwood that sailed out the back of the end zone with the broadcast clock reading, by all accounts, zero. The officials, after a look at the replay, determined that there was, in fact, still a second, which is the sort of finding that, in most professions, is called “a close call,” but in the Big Ten, is called “the result,” and is, as of this writing, final.

The Big Ten, which has since issued an explanation for the added second, described the review as “thorough,” a word that in the officiating world is the league’s term for “we looked at the tape, the tape had a second, and the second is, as of right now, a real second.” The conference further noted that the clock, as the broadcast showed it, had “run out,” but that the game clock, as the officials knew it, had not, a distinction that has been described by one former referee as “the difference between the clock on the wall and the clock in your head, and the one in your head wins.”

Western Michigan, which had, for a brief and very real moment, what its fans are calling “the upset of the year,” has since been told that the upset was, in fact, “under review,” a phrase that the Broncos’ athletic department described as “disappointing but, to be fair, very thorough.” The school’s president, in a statement, said the program was “proud of how our team competed,” which is the phrase used by schools that have just lost by one second, and that are, for the record, also very thorough.

Skeptics have pointed out that a single second is, in a football game, a very small thing, and that the fact that it decided a Big Ten matchup is, as one analyst put it, “the kind of ending that will be on the highlight reel for the rest of the season,” which is the sports-broadcast way of saying “everyone is going to argue about it, and the argument is, in its own way, the point.”

At press time, the Big Ten confirmed that no further seconds were being considered, which is the league’s way of saying the clock is, for now, closed, and that the one second that was added is, as of right now, the only second that counts.