Under NFL rules, Michigan wouldn't have gotten a final play
Current college rules set the stage for a controversial one-second hair-splitting.
Under NFL rules, Michigan's game-winning Hail Mary touchdown attempt would not have occurred. The college football rulebook and NFL rulebook have different interpretations, with the NFL's accounting for the possibility of a very small margin of time remaining. According to Rule 15, Article 9(b) of the NFL rulebook: "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."
In the Michigan controversy, the clock showed either one second or no time remaining when Western Michigan's player touched the Hail Mary, causing confusion. If the same situation arose in the NFL, replay cannot overturn the on-field ruling unless the clock shows at least two seconds. Although this specific rule change wouldn't alter the fact that the NFL should improve transparency in replay, it could simplify the final outcome in such cases.
Written by urgent.news from Yahoo Sports's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
