But the TV camera is not looking straight down the line at the mark. The camera is actually in front of the spot, towards the endzone, looking back. The gap you are seeing might be the lateral gap between the nose of the ball and the stick, and it just comes across looking short on TV.
Or, the refs blatantly screwed MSU on national television.
**edit** The Alabama game just used the overhead camera on a measurement. That was pretty cool.