The MAC turns wacky

By Budd Bailey

The Mid-American Conference isn’t supposed to be completely rational. It is looking up at most of the Division I football conferences in America, giving it a quite a bit of unpredictability. The opening weekend, however, might have overdone it.

Here are some mid-week thoughts about two games on the Opening Weekend that caught my eye.

A water-logged start

No one was too sure what to expect when the University at Buffalo started its season on Thursday with a home game against the University at Albany. After all, the UB had only a handful of returning starters back from 2025, and more than 50 new faces dotted the roster. Usually that’s the recipe for a long season, but college football has gone through many changes in recent years. Players are coming and going like big city commuters. Therefore, hardly anyone in the MAC knew what to expect out of the first weekend as well as the entire season.

It took some time to get some clues from the Bulls. As you may have heard (ahem), a rain storm arrived shortly before the opening kickoff – about 12 minutes, to be more exact. The teams headed to the locker room shortly before 7 p.m., thanks to the lightning strikes that were spotted in the area. The rain started shortly after that, and it came down harder and harder as we approached sunset. The fans mostly hid out wherever they could in the stadium, although some certainly gave up after a while.

It didn’t take long for the atmosphere to become somewhat surreal. The scoreboard faithfully started to count down from 30 minutes, except when another lightning bolt was spotted. This had the effect of someone hitting the reset button every 30 minutes. It looked as if we were locked in a time warp or some other supernatural situation. Along the way we noticed that for some reason a boat was on a trailer that was located between the end zone and the track. It took an hour for someone to guess that perhaps the boat would be needed to shuttle us to our cars, or perhaps home.

While the press box was at least dry, there wasn’t a great deal to do. I popped in on radio announcer and old friend Paul Peck in the booth to see how he was doing. When I appeared, he quickly asked, “Do you want to talk about all of your books to fill the time until it stops?” Sadly for me and my sales report, the radio station had made alternate plans to fill the time. Even the kitchen was starting to become a little bored. A woman came into the press box and asked if we wanted the halftime cookies delivered immediately. “Bring them on!” was the immediate cry.

The major topic of conversation during the delay was the possibilities raised by the situation – including cancellation. By 9 o’clock, it was rather obvious that if the game were played that night, it would be ending well after midnight. That’s not ideal. On the other hand, keep in mind that games – and wins – are precious. If UB had its eye on bowl eligibility for the 2026 season – and that’s something of a given – it didn’t want to throw away a chance to get one of those six wins. Complicating the situation was the fact that Albany was supposed to head home right after the game, and that the stadium was scheduled to be used for some high school games on Friday night.

When the rain let up at 9 o’clock and the cheerleaders and band emerged from shelter, it looked like a 9:30 start was possible. When one last lightning bolt appeared, that pushed the proposed starting time back to 9:50. I had to make a decision – hang around for a game that wouldn’t end until 1:20 a.m., or go home and deal with my basement, which had a few inches of water in it. I opted for the latter, since my reporting duties were given on a volunteer basis. At least I saw the second quarter on television in home after a slightly splashy drive home.

There was a happy ending later on. The Bulls hung on for that precious victory, although Albany gave them all they could handle. The water had exited by cellar by the time I arrived home, leaving only a clean-up task for the next couple of days on the to-do list.

Who knew that one of the most memorable nights of the local football season would center on a rainstorm?

A second to spare

My timing was much better on Saturday night, concerning another MAC team. Western Michigan was playing Michigan in the so-called “Big House.” It was another one of those “we’ll give you a ton of money to show up and lose quietly to us” games that do college football teams little good except for the accountants. I tuned in by chance with a minute to go, and the Broncos had a 12-7 lead.

You probably heard what happened next, as we all got a lesson in timing of college football games. A desperation pass in the final moments fell incomplete in the end zone, and Western Michigan appeared to have won the game. The celebrations started in earnest. But the officials checked the video and decided that there was one second left on the clock. With a second chance, Michigan completed a touchdown pass to win the game 13-12.

From there, it was mass confusion … which still hasn’t ended. It was a situation when you couldn’t believe your own eyes. On the next-to-last play, the television video clearly showed that the clock had hit all zeroes before a defender touched it. Ever since football games made the scoreboard clock the official one, that has translated to “game over.”

But not this time. The real clock was ticking somewhere else in the stadium, and it hadn’t expired when the ball was touched. The clocks are supposedly synchronized before the game, but something happened by the time the contest ended. We’re talking tenths or maybe hundredths of a second here, but officials looked at it and ruled another play could be run. So what we all saw with our own eyes didn’t count. A second was put back on the clock. Michigan’s second “Hail Mary” play worked, and the Wolverines claimed the 13-12 win.

Raise your hand if you knew this fine point of the rulebook. Somebody? Anybody? I didn’t think so. I sure didn’t. After the game, explanations came flowing out, and both sides had to deal with the fallout. Western Michigan took the high road for a while, but after some thought the MAC decided to appeal the decision in an attempt to claim the victory. Meanwhile, someone created an on-line photo of a road sign for social media that read, “Welcome to Ann Arbor – Turn your clocks back one second.”

It’s always “fun” when something happens in a sporting event that falls so far out of the realm of normal possibility that it isn’t even considered. Yet it happens. Personally, I’d prefer a system in which what I see with my own eyes in reviewing such a play decides the matter. Transparency is good for everyone. In other words, Western Michigan should have won the game.

Supposedly, that rule change will be put into effect by the NCAA in the immediate future. The end of games will pass the eye test from now on. Better late than never? Tell that to the Broncos.

(Follow Budd at @WDX2BB on X.com)