Michigan didn't cheat Western Michigan, no matter how loud critics get

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It's been nearly 36 hours since the end of the Michigan football vs. Western Michigan game, and as it pertains to the second being added back to the clock for a final play, there is no debate — there are just loud, angry voices.

The officials declared there was one second remaining in the game due to a Western Michigan defender who had stepped out of bounds touching the ball with time left. The Big Ten corroborated the referee's account with video, and Western Michigan and the Mid-American Conference both agreed with the Big Ten. NBC's John Fanta explained the network's clock discrepancy during the Notre Dame-Wisconsin game nearly 24 hours later. And yet, the shrill nature of social media is showing no signs of being sated.

Many of the loud voices in the media or on social media are giving the game away: they just hate Michigan.

Now, don't get it twisted: Michigan certainly did not play enough to win vs. the Broncos. The only scores came on the first drive of the game and the final play of the game — a play that the Wolverines had to make, did make, and that Western Michigan didn't stop. But under no circumstances should the maize and blue have even put themselves in that situation. However, the same rhetoric that has appeared ever since 'burgergate' and was amplified since the Connor Stalions sign-stealing investigation surfaced quickly: people are calling Michigan 'cheaters' for a decision they had nothing to do with and was completely outside of its control. It's not dissimilar from those complaining about Dusty May's basketball team last year, with scant evidence (actually no evidence) of any wrongdoing. They simply hate Michigan, and any excuse to pile on is enough.

At USA TODAY Sports, there are claims that Western Michigan and the MAC are going along with it because they get paid:

Like Western Michigan president Russ Kavalhuna putting on the best face possible when assessing two clocks in one game. 

“As it stands,” Kavalhuna said Sunday, “The rule was applied the way it should be.”

Sure it was. I’m sure Kavalhuna’s video with Broncos coach Lance Taylor — which looked more like a hostage video than a media opportunity — had nothing to do with playing nice and getting millions from Michigan for future body bag games.

That wasn’t grace and class, that was saving your financial ass(ets).

As for the Broncos, they're not on any future schedule at the moment. They got paid $1.5 million to come to Ann Arbor, the ninth time in program history. The two teams have played seven times in this millennium, and only three times in the past decade. Is $1.5 million enough to shut up and go along with it and not upset the Big Ten? To snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Likely not, even if the MAC has many more schools that play Big Ten foes each year (Michigan has Central and Eastern Michigan on the schedule twice each on future schedules, for the record). Is the MAC willing to not get a fair shake simply so that schools can get a seven-figure sum once or twice a year? In today's college football, that seems equally as unlikely.

No, in today's day and age, it's simply more tantalizing to take the salacious and make that the accepted narrative. The Big Ten under Tony Petitti has had no problems going against the Wolverines and their interests, even when it could have affected the conference greatly, but now he simply must spin things in order to appease the maize and blue? There's no amount of evidence, explanation, logic, or rationalization that could satiate the bloodthirsty dramatics within college football as it pertains to this situation at hand. That's partially what makes the sport great — it has a heck of a lot more drama than its professional counterpart. And though NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay threw gasoline on the fire during the original broadcast by saying that the officials got it wrong, making it that much more difficult for the Big Ten to assert otherwise, having a strong logical opinion on the situation in real time is unlikely to be countermanded by anything proving the opposite.

Multiple things are true here now: Michigan did everything it could to lose against Western and likely should have; the Big Ten got the second left call correct but botched full transparency in the process (though it actually went above and beyond usual explanations in this case); Western Michigan should have stopped the final Hail Mary; and the loudest complainers after the fact simply either hate Michigan or simply wanted to see a ranked team lose to a Group of Six team it had no business losing to. In some ways, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, and for those who watched the game live and saw NBC's timing of the penultimate play and thought the game had ended (just as Western Michigan players had thought initially in the stadium before the official review), it stands to reason that there would be an immediate upset. But no, the Big Ten didn't change rules or add a second to save Michigan, risking its entire reputation and current state of power within college football. Michigan didn't cheat, as it didn't have the means or capability to do so (why hadn't it wielded this power sooner in perhaps a bigger game?). The simplest explanation is that people wanted the inverse of what happened to be true, and thus, that's the fictional reality they now live in — and nothing to the contrary will change that. If you turn on sports radio or tune into social media, you'll still hear people say they're waiting for the real facts to come out, and that's commensurate with the society we now live in. 'Facts' are simply the things that confirm our priors, not what actually happened.

That's not to say that if you're not a Michigan fan, you can't be upset that this is what transpired. Or skeptical, even. But once the Big Ten and the MAC spoke up in full agreement, that was the end of it. No, the vitriol espoused at the moment has little to do with that. It's now simply a tantrum that things didn't go the way hoped by many, and thus, facts are inconvenient to the narrative.

If you're a Michigan fan, you owe no one an apology. The game was won, as ugly as it was. It might be a harbinger of a long, tough season given the struggles in the game. But for now, the Wolverines are 1-0, and even though many will try to discredit it, it doesn't change the record books. Now the maize and blue have to go to work to ensure that future games aren't decided in such a dramatic fashion. But as for Saturday's game? It wasn't great — it was abysmal even — and the Wolverines will need to solve a lot so that it doesn't come down to needing one second to win a game.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan didn't cheat Western Michigan, no matter how loud critics get

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