Did Michigan just cheat for first win of the season?
Published on HivePostify by @sports.guy55 · Sun Sep 06 2026
These days with the level of I would say, excessive technology that is involved in all college-level and professional sports it is just amazing to me that anyone can get away with anything resembling even close to cheating. I feel that often this tech is intentionally not used correctly when to not do so favors whoever the more popular or more wealthy team happens to be and I think we saw one of those situations happen right in front of us over this weekend.
Michigan is the number 16 ranked football team in the NCAA and they were thought to be having a very easy opening day game vs Western Michigan, but that wasn't how the game really went down.
Michigan struggled the entire game and ended it 3 for 10 on 3rd down conversions.
I'm normally very apathetic when it comes to Michigan. I want them to do well because I want the Big 10 to have real credibility and the press is always reluctant to give them that. They have their reasons I guess.
But this is not a good look for Michigan because everyone who watched that game, already knows that Michigan actually did lose that game but got favorable treatment by the lords of the sky.
[src](https://s.yimg.com/lo/mysterio/api/806eb7bba1d7dbbf5e43cd1f17a515ebdc998b6382af1746c59f679a3dfba289/lightyearnetworkapi/resizefillw960%3Bquality80%3Bformatwebp/https%3A%2F%2Fd29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net%2Fimages%2Fuser-uploaded%2Fmichiganhailmary6800.jpg)
See those 3 zeros in the bottom left? Well that means the game is over. Now in the middle of the screen you can see that nobody has touched the ball yet and when that happens, it means the fucking game is over. not for Michigan at home though, it appears.
[src](https://s.yimg.com/lo/mysterio/api/e99d3f22f09142969a5408102b345713e1e9b53714b70a3699c4a717a9c2e693/lightyearnetworkapi/resizefillw1200%3Bquality80%3Bformatwebp/https%3A%2F%2Fd29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net%2Fimages%2Fuser-uploaded%2Fmichiganhailmary6800.jpg)
There are plenty of angles on this play and none of them indicate anything other than the clock expiring. There was no penalty, the WMU players are intentionally avoiding direct contact so as to not give the zebras a chance to call pass interference and honestly, this was a perfect prevent defense on the hail mary play.
but inexplicably, and still without any real reason being given, an additional 1 second was put back on the clock and allowed Michigan another try at what was essentially the same play.
"Rules analysts" and a former referee that were part of the broadcast team couldn't come up with any good reason that time would be added to the clock to allow Michigan another chance at a hail mary. Normally these sorts of things don't matter because the opportunity that a hail mary play is going to be successful is very low. It's almost impossible until it isn't.
On the next play Michigan managed to catch the ball and maybe it is just me being a cynic but the referee almost seemed elated when he raised his hands upright indicating it was a touchdown.
[src](https://platform.sbnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-05-at-11.10.17-PM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=8.0410607356715%2C0%2C83.917878528657%2C100&w=2400)
Now I don't want to straight up call this home cookin' because a ton of calls went against Michigan throughout the entire game, this was actually a massive part of the problem with their overall game as they gave up a lot of yardage on rather dumb penalties. However, this "bonus down" doesn't seem like it would be awarded if the shoe had been on the other foot in Ann Arbor.
Michigan was a 30 point favorite going into this game so anyone that best on WMU still won. I don't like to see calls like this though, especially when now, even though the game is over, no clear explanation has been given as to why it happened.
I think that Michigan can and should still go down in the rankings though. Even without that controversial call at the end they didn't look like a team that belongs in the top-20.
Tags: #americanfootball#ncaa#college-football#michigan#wmu#controversy