Time is flimsy in football. It’s one of the only timed sports in which game clocks don’t use tenths-of-a-second — there’s either one, second left or zero seconds left. Every other sport on Earth has some sort of buzzer or indicator that goes off when the clock hits zeroes, but not football. Teams often snap the ball with the clock at 0:00 because the actual officiating mechanic is that officials are supposed to look at the ball, then look up at the game clock hitting 0:00, then look back at the ball, and if it’s still unsnapped, throw a flag.

Watching the game live, it sure seemed as if we’d just witnessed a sports crime. The broadcast clearly showed the clock hitting 0:00 with the ball in the air. Here’s what we saw:

Sometimes, TV graphics can be slightly out-of-sync with the official clock, like on this play … but this wasn’t a graphic. The numbers in the bottom left of the screen come from a camera pointed at the stadium scoreboard, which the officials use during the game. The evidence seemed irrefutable.

NBC officiating analyst Terry McAulay couldn’t lie to us: “The ball isn’t even close to touching a player when it goes to zero.” He did leave the possibility that the officials had some alternate system that NBC didn’t have access to.

HOWEVER: The Big Ten later released a video on Twitter featuring “what was viewed during the replay process.” In that video, a Western Michigan player appears to make contact with the ball with 0:01 remaining. (It’s odd that the replay officials apparently made their determination from a camera angle behind the defender where you can’t actually see the exact moment the defender makes contact with the ball.)

The Big Ten’s statement notes that “85 minutes before the game, all broadcast cameras used for the replay system, including the camera on the game clock, are synced using a strobe system to ensure all cameras are aligned.” The implication is: The replay cameras are synced, but the broadcast, using the same cameras, somehow became out of sync over the course of the game.

There’s only one thing we know for sure: Somebody had the wrong information. Either NBC or the Big Ten had the wrong clock.

I don’t believe there was a conspiracy. If the video the Big Ten provided is the real, unedited feed of the replay officials discussing the play, then they made the right call with the information provided to them.

However … I have some notes.

The Big Ten’s official stance is that its clock was accurate and NBC’s clock was unsynced. Why? And how do we know that’s the case, rather than the officials’ clock being unsynced and the broadcast clock being accurate?

Clearly, the Big Ten feels the replay officials’ feed is exculpatory. Wouldn’t they have been better off just giving us that feed in the first place? Instead, the broadcast watched by tens of millions of people featured NBC’s officiating expert questioning the call live. (Some college leagues have already begun making the replay process available.)

I think football should have clocks with tenths-of-seconds. This scenario keeps coming up. An extra second was famously added to the 2009 Big 12 championship game, allowing Texas to kick a game-winning field goal. An extra second was also added to the 2013 Iron Bowl, allowing the Kick Six to happen.

You don’t even have to leave Michigan to find more examples of this sort of stuff happening! In 2001, Michigan State beat Michigan on a play that began with one second remaining; the clock had suspiciously stopped at 0:01 on Michigan State’s previous spike, even though it seemed like the clock should have expired.

As for the game itself: I’ll be honest, I’m bummed. WMU deserved the win. The Broncos ran the ball all over Michigan. They had a field goal drive that took up 20 plays, lasting 13 minutes and 40 seconds. (If only it had been 13:41.) Meanwhile, Michigan had exactly one proper scoring drive all game — the first one, the one that was part of the pre-determined game script — before getting shut out by WMU for 55 minutes.

We should be celebrating Western’s first win over Michigan rather than relitigating a redone Hail Mary. But having watched these two teams play … I think WMU is going to have plenty to celebrate this year, and I’m not sure Michigan is going to have much else to remember.

My goodness, what an ass-kicking. The 41-point margin of defeat is the worst of Swinney’s tenure. The last time Clemson lost by this much was a 54-7 loss in 2000 against Florida State — a literal “who’s your daddy” situation, as FSU was coached by Bobby Bowden and Clemson was coached by his son, Terry.

Clemson only had 145 yards against LSU, its fewest in any game since Swinney took over in 2009. Clemson also allowed 644 yards, the most allowed by the Tigers in any game since Swinney took over. It’s pretty bad to have the fewest yards and allow the most yards in the same game.

But even those stats aren’t telling the story here. The final score could’ve been LSU: Whatever Number They Wanted, Clemson: 0. Clemson had two scoring drives: One when an LSU player literally bobbled a ball directly into a Clemson player’s arms, automatically putting Clemson in field goal range, and the other in the game’s closing minutes, with Clemson starting QB Christopher Vizzina still playing against LSU’s backups.

Clemson is clearly getting diminishing returns from Dabo. The Tigers made the four-team College Football Playoff every year from 2015 to 2020. In 2024, the Tigers squeaked into the 12-team playoff field by winning the ACC Championship Game on a last-second field goal. Last year, they went 7-6 and weren’t close to making the conference championship game or the playoff. The trend line is heading down.

Swinney’s response to last year’s 7-6 team was to circle the wagons and lean even harder on his most trusted assistants and former players. After firing offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, he re-hired Chad Morris, the program’s OC from 2011 to 2014. If you look hard at Clemson’s staff directory, it’s a real “Remember That Guy” situation of former Clemson players from Swinney’s more successful teams. (C.J. Spiller! Tajh Boyd! Ben Boulware!)

It is true that Swinney finally started using the transfer portal this year. In 2024 Clemson was one of four FBS teams to take no transfers at all — the others were the three military academies, who have very restrictive transfer rules. In 2025, Clemson took four transfers, still the fewest of any FBS team besides the military academies. This year, Clemson brought in 15 transfers, but only three started Saturday, all in the defensive backfield.

Meanwhile, Lane Kiffin calls himself “the Portal King” and started a transfer quarterback, a transfer running back, and three transfer wide receivers on Saturday night. On Thursday, LSU won an unprecedented ruling to add former NFL players to the team’s roster, although neither player suited up Saturday night. (As Kiffin joked in his halftime interview: It doesn’t exactly look like they need the help.)

What comes next for Clemson is hard. Dabo took over a program that had become mediocre and built it into a national champion. And he did it his way, by developing his players and trusting the people closest to him.

For an extended period of time, Clemson was legitimately the best or second-best program in the sport. That seemed impossible when Swinney took over in 2009.

It seems equally impossible now. Dabo is sticking with the guys who got him here, surrounding himself with the assistants and former players who helped him win in the past. This is a sport where you can build a winner on Day 1. Swinney is hoping the guys from Year 10 can help him figure out how to win in Year 17. It feels foolish to focus on consistency when Clemson is getting consistently worse.

2025 UMass has a strong claim as the worst team in the modern era of college football. It lost 42-6 to Kent State, a team that went 0-12 in 2024. It made headlines for setting off fireworks for kicking a field goal down 45-0 to Northern Illinois, a team that finished the season 3-9. It lost to Bryant, an FCS team that went 1-9 against other FCS teams. Bill Connelly ranked UMass as the 216th-best team in college football, below most of the FCS and a bunch of Division II teams.

But it wasn’t just last year. UMass made the questionable decision to move up to FBS in 2012. Fifteen years later, it still hasn’t had a winning season. The Minutemen went 1-11 in 2012 … and 2013 … and 2019 … and 2021 … and 2022. They “peaked” with 4-8 seasons in 2017 and 2018.

Making the move particularly bleak: UMass was pretty decent before moving up from the FCS. It won the 1998 national championship and made some deep playoff runs. It had Victor Cruz!

I actually did an episode of Split Zone Duo last year detailing why UMass is always so bad. It’s called “Why You’re Always Bad: UMass.”

(BTW, since it’s convenient: I’ve been filling in at SZD this week — I’m gonna record their weekly wrap-up show, “The Hurry-Up,” right after this newsletter gets published. And I have a new weekly feature with them called “Team Of The Week” where I talk about a team that’s good or bad or fun or weird. Last week it was North Dakota State. I still haven’t figured out who I’m doing this week, but I think it might be UMass.)

Anyway: UMass might not always be bad. I don’t know if it’ll finally crack a winning season, but … it won’t go 0-12! Rutgers wasn’t supposed to be good, but it is, in fact, in the Big Ten.

It was UMass’ first win since beating Wagner on October 26, 2024 — 677 days. (OK, to be exact: About 975,000 minutes.) It was UMass’ first win against an FBS opponent since beating Army on October 28, 2023 — 992 days. It was UMass’ first win over a power conference opponent … ever. (It did beat BYU, which has now joined the Big 12, back in 2017.)

Why the improvement? UMass hit the portal hard this offseason. QB Pop Watson, a former Massachusetts state champion who began his career at Virginia Tech, looks to be the program savior of UMass football; he looked good. And having him around sends a message to players in Massachusetts (and there aren’t that many!) that good things might happen if they stay at home.

But I have my own theory: Last year, when UMass was last in FBS in points, its offensive coordinator was Mike Bajakian. I know Mike Bajakian is bad at being an offensive coordinator because he was Northwestern’s offensive coordinator for four seasons, and Northwestern was bad. You might assume UMass fired him, because his job was points and they finished last in points, but he actually took another job.

That job? QB coach for the Cleveland Browns. So when you see Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders throwing interceptions this year, remember: That could’ve been UMass!