FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.
Another weird Big Ten moment, another mandated rule change to deal with the embarrassment. Today we turn to the 2001 Michigan-Michigan State game, played at Spartan Stadium. Please remember that.
The Wolverines were 6-1, ranked sixth, and lossless in the conference prior to this game. Sparty came in 4-2 with two bad losses already in Big Ten play. But rivalry games are rivalry games, and even though Michigan seemed to have all the advantages, Michigan State kept it close right up until the final play of the game.
On the game's penultimate play, which started with 17 seconds still showing on the clock, Jeff Smoker ran wildly for the sidelines but didn't quite make it. The Spartans, who were out of time outs, scurried back to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball and take one last shot at the end zone. They snapped the ball with one second showing on the clock, spiked it ... and still had one second showing on the clock.
Michigan, of course, argued that the game should have ended. But did it?
No. The officials said the stadium clock was right and gave Sparty one more snap. Smoker hit T.J. Duckett in the end zone and Michigan State won, 26-24.
The controversy blew up immediately. Michigan claimed shenanigans on the part of Spartan Stadium officials. They also claimed that one of their defenders was held on the final play. Just for good measure, they also appealed to little-known Big Ten bylaw 142(a)(3), which states that Michigan and Ohio State may not lose conference games, except to each other, unless they really stink up the joint.
With a level of scrutiny usually reserved for the Zapruder film, fan analysis revealed that either (a) Michigan totally got jobbed, or (b) the Wolverines were lucky they were even in a position to complain, since the Spartans should have had a time out given back to them.
Subsequent to this game, the Big Ten decided that maybe it wasn't a good idea to have the home team provide the official timekeeper, and started designating one neutral official to the task. Likewise, after seeing all the mix-ups on the final Spartan series, the Big Ten started moving towards instant replay, which is now the norm in all of college football. You can blame/thank this game for that.
