- May 21, 2026
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As the football-following world continues to process the implausible outcome of Saturday night's Western Michigan-Michigan game, it makes sense to consider any and all ideas for avoiding a similar outcome — at the college level or in the NFL.
Current NFL rules would have not given Michigan a mulligan, because matters of clock timing can't be reviewed unless two or more seconds remain.
Another NFL rule would have slammed the door on an extra snap for the Wolverines; as former NFL senior V.P. of officiating Mike Pereira told The Athletic, the pro football protocol entails relying on the stadium clock that is visible to everyone — not a separate clock seen during the replay-review process.
“It is my understanding that if there is a discrepancy between the video and replay command center versus the television network video that everybody sees, that replay is to use the TV video,” Pereira told The Athletic. “And that is the same protocol in the NFL, in the UFL. It’s the same. You use the footage that everybody sees if there is a discrepancy.”
There's another potential safeguard that could be employed in such situations, at both levels: clocks showing tenths of a second, when the time slips under one minute.
The Eagles proposed this approach twice in recent years, in 2023 and most recently in 2024. The effort failed in 2023 because many of the existing clocks weren’t capable of showing tenths of seconds, and teams didn’t want to spend the money to adapt to the new rule. The proposal failed in 2024, too.
Pennywise. Pound foolish. If/when the NFL experiences a scandal similar to the one that played out in Ann Arbor, the owners will wish they'd written the checks for new clocks.
Current NFL rules would have not given Michigan a mulligan, because matters of clock timing can't be reviewed unless two or more seconds remain.
Another NFL rule would have slammed the door on an extra snap for the Wolverines; as former NFL senior V.P. of officiating Mike Pereira told The Athletic, the pro football protocol entails relying on the stadium clock that is visible to everyone — not a separate clock seen during the replay-review process.
“It is my understanding that if there is a discrepancy between the video and replay command center versus the television network video that everybody sees, that replay is to use the TV video,” Pereira told The Athletic. “And that is the same protocol in the NFL, in the UFL. It’s the same. You use the footage that everybody sees if there is a discrepancy.”
There's another potential safeguard that could be employed in such situations, at both levels: clocks showing tenths of a second, when the time slips under one minute.
The Eagles proposed this approach twice in recent years, in 2023 and most recently in 2024. The effort failed in 2023 because many of the existing clocks weren’t capable of showing tenths of seconds, and teams didn’t want to spend the money to adapt to the new rule. The proposal failed in 2024, too.
Pennywise. Pound foolish. If/when the NFL experiences a scandal similar to the one that played out in Ann Arbor, the owners will wish they'd written the checks for new clocks.