If you wanted a normal week of college football after the summer of lawsuits and court dates, then I apologize.

Nothing was normal about Week 1. 

Be it LSU and its debut with Lane Kiffin — and the still continuing legal actions from the school and the SEC — or the most talked about second in recent memory. Toss in a Monday night power outage that had teams preparing for a game from back in 2006, not 2026 and you got a welcome back to college football like never before. 

Let’s start with the aforementioned Kiffin and his LSU Tigers, who have been the talk of the sport over the past month with an increasing number of players being cut from NFL rosters attempting to join the squad. 

At halftime of LSU’s 51-10 win over Clemson, Kiffin told ESPN reporter Holly Rowe “Imagine if we had NFL players.” A sarcastic nod to the surrounding controversy. 

On Tuesday the SEC took another step in its attempt to keep professional players from coming back to school by amending the complaint from the conference’s lawsuit against LSU.  

The conference seeks to clarify its authority to potentially remove LSU from the conference. A meeting between all 16 school presidents is also scheduled for Thursday with a potential removal of the school not likely but not ruled out. 

Moving up to Michigan and a game that has been dubbed by some as the “Bail Mary.” 

Western Michigan thought they had defeated Michigan 12-7 after Bryce Underwood’s Hail Mary attempt was incomplete with zeroes on the clock. The officials had another idea when, after a review, they added one second to the clock. Michigan then completed a second Hail Mary attempt for the winning score. 

The controversy is: Where did the extra second come from? 

The in-stadium clock that was synced up to television cameras from broadcaster NBC clearly showed the ball in the air with 0:00 on the clock which would signify the end of the game. However, officials say that the Big Ten’s official clock showed one second remaining.  

The issue for fans is where can anyone see this clock? 

It isn’t visible on a TV broadcast or in the stadium which leaves a lot of conspiracy potential about officials saying “trust us, there is one second left,” without any way of proving or refuting. 

Sunday the MAC — Western Michigan’s conference — stated that they would not be pursuing any change to the result of the game, but the tone changed Tuesday when conference commission Jon Steinbrecher issued a statement that the conference would appeal the final score and seek that the Broncos are named the winner. 

“At the conclusion of the game, a timing error during the replay review process resulted in an additional play being awarded when, under the established replay protocol, the game should have been declared concluded,” the appeal to the FBS Oversight Committee stated. 

To add a little more fire to the contested finish, Jeff Sagarin — who is a recognized NCAA championship selector — credited Western Michigan with a win in his ratings. 

Finally, Monday’s matchup between Florida State and SMU was delayed due to a power surge at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee just minutes ahead of kickoff. The ensuing delay lasted nearly two hours and saw the game start with no communication between players and coaches on the sideline, along with time being kept by the on-field officials. 

Power slowly returned throughout the game as SMU took a 27-24 victory thanks to a field goal that came at 12:31 a.m. local time Tuesday. 

Welcome back college football, you are anything but ordinary and that is what we love about you. 

Reporter Jon Allen can be reached at 406-758-4426 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.