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When you teach a sports journalism course, and your school’s football team ends up on national television for all the wrong reasons, the lecture almost writes itself.

According to Las Vegas and the rest of the prediction markets, Western Michigan University should have never been in the game last Saturday against Michigan, much less be in a position to win. Sadly, since my alma mater Western fell 13-12 to the Wolverines, the story of their play has been overshadowed by how they lost. Michigan’s game-winner came after officials added one second back on the clock — a second that was not apparent to viewers at home because the Big Ten conference used an internal replay-feed clock and not the one we all see on television.

Western fans, and the Mid-American Conference (of which Western is a part), didn’t buy the rationale. The MAC filed an appeal earlier this week, asking for the results to be overturned, and the NCAA said no. As for fans … I was most surprised that many students........

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