The Michigan Wolverines pulled off a wild win in Ann Arbor on Saturday night, September 5, 2026, but hardly anyone outside their home stadium is celebrating. Michigan managed to defeat Western Michigan 13-12 on a miraculous Hail Mary pass as time expired. But that game-ending touchdown came on an extra play granted by officials after the game seemed over.

Now, college football personalities like Pat McAfee, David Pollack, and Brieden Fehoko are openly expressing their disbelief over how the game ended.

The former Georgia Bulldogs linebacker David Pollack believed that Western Michigan was on the verge of beating Michigan, as they controlled the clock, avoided turnovers, and capitalized on Michigan’s mistakes.

But in the end, he was proven wrong as quarterback Bryce Underwood got one more chance to lead the program to a win.”Man, I feel so bad for those Western Michigan kids!” Pollack posted on X. “They got hosed, man. You cant defend the refs. They even said it on the broadcast. Indefensible!”

Western Michigan was very close to winning the season opener. Wolverines’ QB Bryce Underwood’s first throw to the end zone went out of bounds as the clock hit zero, and the Broncos were already celebrating on the field. But after a review, officials put one second back on the clock and gave Michigan one last play. Underwood made it count, finding wide receiver JJ Buchanan for a 47-yard touchdown to steal a win for the Wolverines in a match they could have already lost.

Pollack wasn’t alone, as multiple former players and analysts across social media agreed with the same sentiment on watching the game turnaround. The consensus was formed within minutes of the final whistle as Western Michigan won the game, but the officials took it away from them.

Former West Virginia punter and analyst Pat McAfee was just as stunned as many fans watching the controversial play live. NBC’s rules analyst, Terry McAulay, tried to explain it in real time and said that the broadcast clock and the stadium clock were supposedly in sync. And by his own reading of the replay, McAulay believes the ball wasn’t anywhere close to a player when the clock hit zero.

“I don’t see how that happened, assuming our clock is correct,” Terry McAulay said, according to Mark Schofield of SB Nation. “It is clearly not touching a player; the ball is clearly still in the air when the clock goes to zero on our screen. The Big Ten is going to have to tell a lot of us how did they get to one second on this play.”

That gap between what everyone watched on TV and what the officials ruled on the field is exactly why this blew up the way it did. Former LSU Tigers nose tackle Brieden Fehoko wasn’t buying any of it either, as he went on to claim that the officials rigged the game in favor of a single team.

Brieden Fehoko’s X post read: “If you don’t believe sports are rigged, the officials just rigged the Michigan game in their favor. Shouldn’t have been a play. I know you lying.”

However, under NCAA rules, none of this outrage changes anything. Once a referee ends the game, the result is final, even if a review afterward changes what happened on the field.

Now, Michigan is 1-0 in the 2026 season with Kyle Whittingham having his first win as Wolverines head coach, and Western Michigan is left with a tough loss, a $1.5M payout, and plenty of reasons to feel it should have gone the other way.

Until the Big Ten explains how that second appeared, this one’s going to follow the Wolverines around for a while, as Michigan is set to go against Oklahoma in Ann Arbor next weekend with an offense that still looks shaky even with a win in hand.