Big Ten fines Michigan, Ohio State $100k each for postgame brawl
By Homero De la Fuente, CNN
(CNN) — The Big Ten Conference has fined Michigan and Ohio State $100k each for their involvement in Saturday’s postgame brawl, the conference announced.
“The Big Ten Conference has determined that the actions of both teams following the Michigan-Ohio State football game on Saturday, November 30, 2024, violated the Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy,” the conference said in a press release.
Following Michigan’s 13-10 victory, a Wolverines player attempted to plant a Michigan banner on the Buckeyes logo at midfield in Ohio Stadium, which led to pushing and shoving and eventually punches being thrown by members of both teams. Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer was seen snatching the flag and throwing it away.
It took several minutes for stadium security and police to separate the two teams, with pepper spray being deployed to get the situation under control, according to multiple media reports. The television broadcast showed players wiping their eyes and coughing in the aftermath of the brawl.
“Not only did the actions of both teams violate fundamental elements of sportsmanship such as respect and civility, the nature of the incident also jeopardized the safety of participants and bystanders,” the Big Ten added.
According to the Big Ten, no other fines or suspensions will be handed out.
“For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game. Bad for the sport. Bad for college football,” Michigan running back Kalel Mullings told the Fox broadcast.
“At the end of the day, some people got to learn how to lose. You can’t be fighting this stuff just because you lost the game. All that fighting, we had 60 minutes, we had four quarters to do all that fighting and now people want to talk and fight. That’s wrong. It’s bad for the game. Classless in my opinion. People got to be better.”
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said he thinks all his players are okay following the incident, adding “there was a couple things kind of crazy that went on down there.”
The sixth-year coach also described the moments that led to the ugly scenes.
“I don’t know all the details of it but I know these guys are looking to put a flag on our field and our guys weren’t going to let that happen,” Day said. “So, I will find out exactly what happened, but this is our field and certainly we’re embarrassed at the fact we lost the game. But there are some prideful guys on the team that weren’t just going to let that happen.”
CNN’s Kevin Dotson contributed to this report
The-CNN-Wire
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