Misery Index: Michigan's controversial win demands a deeper look and clearer answers

We all celebrate the beginning of a new college football season because, no matter what kind of nonsense is happening off the field, we believe that once the competition begins it will unfold the way it always has.

That didn't happen in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Saturday night. Not even close. Instead, the decision to give Michigan an extra second against Western Michigan — when the live video showed the clock expired and Bryce Underwood's Hail Mary pass still in the air — could turn into one of the biggest on-field scandals in college football history.

Welcome to another year of the Misery Index, a weekly feature where Yahoo Sports takes the temperature of college football fan bases that, as college football fan bases tend to do, react badly to losses, or sometimes even wins.

But unfortunately, the 2026 season must start with a story that should make all of us miserable.

Because if we can't trust the game to be over when the clock we see on television hits 0:00, if we have to hold our breath because we're afraid someone from a conference office is going to play god with video replay to give a favored team one more chance to avoid an embarrassing upset, then what's the point of playing the game in the first place?

Michigan was declared the winner, 13-12 , when Underwood's second Hail Mary connected. But anyone with honest eyes knows the Wolverines' win should be considered suspect, and the Big Ten's explanation two hours later was deeply unsatisfying.

The Big Ten says the clock on TV was not quite in sync with what was happening in the stadium and released a video that supposedly supports their position. But since the clock doesn't show fractions of a second and is only shown at the very end of the Big Ten's video rather than counting down from the start of the play, their explanation comes down to this: "Trust us, bro."

Maybe the Big Ten is right. MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher released a statement accepting what the Big Ten showed him , so perhaps that will be the end of it.

But football is the only sport where this is an issue. In basketball, for instance, you can see when the shot clock lights up red on the backboard and whether a player has or hasn't released a shot from their fingertips when that light turns on. Even if it's close, there's usually a definitive angle.

Nothing about this is definitive. And every player involved in trying to catch that ball was out of bounds, which makes it hard to explain why Michigan deserved to get that second back. Common sense tells you that when the clock hits 0:00 and the ball is still in the air, the game should be over.

If there's a big enough margin for error in how the clocks are synced to give Michigan one more play in that circumstance, that's a major trust issue for college football.

We need the Big Ten to do the honorable thing and launch a thorough, independent investigation into everyone involved in this decision. We deserve answers.

A multibillion dollar business should not be relying on the Big Ten replay booth to make a replay decision that swings a game to benefit a Big Ten team over a non-Big Ten team.

But this is about more than the result of one game. It's about the integrity of a sport that, as we've seen from the Brendan Sorsby controversy and the LSU mess , can rise up and demand fairness when it wants to.

Western Michigan has every right to feel cheated, and every person who watched that should have serious questions about why the call on the field got overturned under less-than-obvious circumstances.

The Big Ten will certainly hope that its statement Saturday is the end of it, but stories like this tend to take on a life of their own. The Big Ten better buckle up, because if we can't trust the clock, we can't trust anything. For Western Michigan and anyone who thinks the better team should win without a replay booth intervention, 2026 is off to a pretty miserable start.

ACC: In July, Dabo Swinney showed up at ACC media days and started reciting his résumé, which is what he always does when the questions get tough. It doesn't matter if it's the ink-stained wretches in the press room or Tyler from Spartanburg calling his radio show. At Clemson, you don't dare question King Dabo or suggest that he's lost the plot because you should be grateful for everything he's done. That's his version, at least. But given that we've all watched Clemson decline in real time during this decade, it felt extremely off-key for Swinney to come off a deeply embarrassing 7-6 season and once again start talking about the championships he won when college football had completely different rules than it does today. And when you aren't serious about fixing what's broken, you get what Clemson looks like now as a program: Soft, stale and irrelevant. Sure, it's no easy assignment to open the season at LSU. But Clemson was so uncompetitive in a 51-10 loss , Swinney has no choice anymore but to own this, to admit that he's let his program wither in the NIL era and to either get serious about changing their reality or retire. It's time for everyone at Clemson to stop treating this man with kid gloves and make him understand that nobody — even a two-time national championship coach — gets a lifetime pass.

Big Ten: The crazy part about Rutgers losing to UMass isn't just the 37-21 final score or how the Scarlet Knights were manhandled by a MAC team. Rutgers, according to multiple sources, actually paid a lot of money for this roster — far more than any Group of Six team and potentially in the $30 million range. And if that's not bad enough, an athletic department already swimming in red ink would owe Greg Schiano $18.5 million if they fired him after this year. All things considered, Rutgers may at this moment be the most hopeless situation in college football. Though it was sensible to bring Schiano back in 2020, he is 31-42 in his second stint. With the Big Ten getting so much better and Schiano getting so much older than he was 20 years ago when he turned Rutgers into a really good Big East program, it's just not going to work in its current form. Unless there's a massive and immediate turnaround, Rutgers athletic director Keli Zinn needs to start thinking about a new solution.

Big 12: Oklahoma State was so bad last season that almost anything would represent improvement. But after firing Mike Gundy and importing practically the entire North Texas program, including head coach Eric Morris and quarterback Drew Mestemaker, the Cowboys actually lost by a larger margin to Tulsa than they did last year. Morris' Oklahoma State debut, a 24-10 loss to their in-state rival , was probably more disheartening than the 19-12 loss that put Gundy on the hot seat. Think of it this way: If North Texas had played Tulsa last year in the American, they'd have been significant favorites. So why wouldn't the same personnel be able to deal with Tulsa now? It's strange, but it does illustrate the limits of trying to rebuild your program by taking someone else's. It doesn't mean Morris was a bad hire or that he shouldn't have brought over all those players from North Texas, but if you're an Oklahoma State fan it is a significant embarrassment to lose in consecutive years to a small, private, in-state school with a fraction of your budget. It also suggests the Cowboys have a long road to be as competitive as they were during Gundy's peak years.

SEC: Though the SEC did not lose a game Saturday, Auburn's 17-16 win over Baylor deserves a red flag. The main allure for hiring Alex Golesh is his offense — an up-tempo, spread-based offense that scored a ton of points at South Florida the last few years and at Tennessee before that. But the college football pendulum has swung back toward defense lately, and the main factor in Golesh becoming an attractive power conference candidate was South Florida outspending everyone else in the American Conference last season. It's too early to render a judgement on Golesh before he even coaches in an SEC game. But it was notable that Auburn's offense struggled quite a bit against Baylor, including quarterback Byrum Brown (a South Florida transfer) throwing three interceptions. Though Auburn's offense will certainly get sharper, will it be physical enough to compete in the SEC? For now, Tiger fans should be happy about the win. But they should be frightened about what's to come once conference play starts.

Group of Six: One of the biggest upsets in college football history happened on Sept. 5, 1992 when the Citadel beat Arkansas. The next day, Razorbacks coach Jack Crowe resigned. While the stakes were not nearly as high, it's kind of funny that the Citadel registered another FBS upset exactly 34 years later by beating Charlotte, 43-41. Keep in mind, the Citadel hasn't had a winning season since 2016 and went 4-8 last year. Tim Albin, the 49ers coach, went 33-19 in four seasons at Ohio. He's now 1-12 since moving to Charlotte, which might now be the worst program in FBS.

Brent Key: At any Georgia Tech game, you'll see a large number of fans wearing hats that say "Run The Damn Ball" in big letters. At a program that thrived for many years running Paul Johnson's triple option and has had a resurgence under Key, a former offensive line coach, being able to run the ball is not optional. So it should register as a huge concern that Georgia Tech managed just 51 yards on 30 carries while giving up three sacks in its 14-13 loss to Colorado . It was a bad night for Key on multiple fronts. Between failing to run the play clock all the way down late in the game when Georgia Tech had the lead, wasting a timeout on Colorado's game-winning drive when the Buffaloes were going to spike the ball, then playing for a 45-yard field goal to win instead of trying to get closer for kicker Aidan Birr (whose game-winner was blocked), it was a game management debacle. But none of that matters if Georgia Tech's offensive line can't win the line of scrimmage. Knowing how much pride Key takes in being physical up front, it should be a personal humiliation to see his offensive line play so poorly.

Kalani Sitake: Though BYU blew out Utah Tech in its opener, things are strange in Provo. Amid speculation about friction between Sitake and athletic director Brian Santiago — a fire that Sitake poured gasoline on with some passive-aggressive public comments about their relationship — the school announced Aug. 27 that the football coach would report to a university vice president rather than the AD. And this is all happening less than a year after Sitake decided to stay at BYU rather than take an offer from Penn State. If you read between the lines, it's reasonable to conclude that Sitake did not believe Santiago was delivering on promises made with regard to football funding. "I'm easy to get along with as long as you just take care of our football team and take care of the boys," he told reporters when asked prior to the announcement what their relationship was like. Obviously, this is an unsustainable situation — and not an internal fight that fans want to see spilling out into public view in a year when they should contend for the College Football Playoff.

Jamey Chadwell: Few schools in the country are getting less value for their money than Liberty. Though his contract is not public, Liberty lured Chadwell from Coastal Carolina with a contract believed to be worth around $4 million per year. That means Chadwell is being paid like a low-end power conference coach while delivering alarmingly bad results for multiple years in a row. In fact, going back to the 2024 season, Liberty has won just seven of its last 20 games, including Saturday's 20-13 loss to James Madison. And this is happening while the school continues to pour resources into the program and, at least on paper, has landed highly ranked high school and transfer classes. One major source of frustration for Liberty fans is committing 12 penalties for 82 yards Saturday, continuing a trend of sloppy play from recent seasons. Given its willingness to spend money, Liberty should be dominating C-USA. If they don't, it's squarely on Chadwell.

Sonny Dykes: We are a week late acknowledging the disaster that is TCU, but timing should not protect those who deserve a good Misery Index lashing. And the moment TCU decided to suspend the media credentials of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for committing an act of journalism, we should have known that karma was headed their way. The local newspaper did its job, reporting on a locker room fight that left receiver Dozie Ezukanma with serious injuries requiring hospitalization. The school decided to punish the messenger and then subsequently lost its season opener to North Carolina, 15-10. Though TCU reversed its decision and restored access for the only media outlet that covers the program on a daily basis, it's a classic case of worrying about the wrong things. If Dykes lands on the hot seat this season — a distinct possibility if they're really as bad as they looked against the Tar Heels — it would be a shocking fall for a coach who had his team playing in the national title game just four years ago. But he wouldn't get a lot of sympathy from those who prefer the truth coming to light.

Enough, Kirk Herbstreit: America has been very kind to Herbstreit as he's turned his dogs into ESPN celebrities. But opening a pop-up store this weekend in Baton Rouge to sell merchandise with the image of his golden retriever, Peter, is the kind of self-indulgence that needs to be addressed. Herbie, with all due respect, it's gone too far and we're now at the point where people are unafraid to call it out. Dogs are wonderful creatures, and it is terrific that you find comfort in their companionship. But your relationship with them is not unique or special. A lot of people have dogs, a lot of people love dogs, and a lot of people need dogs for physical and emotional support. Pushing it to the point where you're selling dog merch and shoving it down everyone's throat at every opportunity is, frankly, a little weird.

Josh Hoover had a bloody face: There is perhaps something cool about playing football with blood streaming down your face and all over your uniform, but it was a little too reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter having a friend for dinner to see Hoover stay in the game against North Texas on Saturday after a violent facemask penalty. It wasn't his fault, and we should give Hoover props for toughness. But it's also very gross.

Ryan Coleman-Williams continues to drop passes: Though Alabama had no problems in a 48-10 win over East Carolina, the Crimson Tide's star receiver is still having issues catching the football. A year ago, Coleman-Williams led the FBS in dropped passes. He started 2026 with a couple more that were pretty egregious. Williams has decided not to wear gloves this season, but maybe he should reassess because it didn't seem to help in Week 1.