The scuffle between Ohio State and Michigan after the Buckeyes’ 13-10 loss to the Wolverines was one of just several fights across college football during rivalry week last Saturday.
If it were up to one of the most prominent voices in the sport, those physical altercations would come with some serious consequences.
In a post Sunday night on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, ESPN analyst and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit said that players involved in these fights should be suspended for their team’s next game, even if it forced them to sit out a conference championship or College Football Playoff game.
“I think any conference commissioner who had a team or teams involved in the postgame fights owes it to his conference and THE SPORT of CFB to study the film very closely and sit anyone who was involved in being an aggressor to help escalate the situation,” Herbstreit wrote. “Sit those involved for their next game. Whether it’s a bowl game or playoff game. These dudes need consequences-for their own good!”
The intense passions of rivalry matchups led to a number of violent confrontations between teams after their games last week.
Ohio State and Michigan players got into a fracas after the Wolverines attempted to plant their maize-and-blue flag on the Block O at midfield of Ohio Stadium following their stunning triumph as a three-touchdown underdog. The fight took several minutes to clear up and saw police deploy pepper spray on players and nearby media members, something that the Ohio State Police Department is now investigating.
It wasn’t the only high-profile stand-off between FBS teams.
North Carolina and North Carolina State, Florida and Florida State, and Arizona and Arizona State all got into heated altercations of some sort after their rivalry games. Each of the fights was instigated by the winning team, all of which were playing on the road, attempting to plant a flag (or, in Arizona State’s case, a trident) on their opponent’s midfield logo.
Repercussions from the Ohio State-Michigan brawl have already been felt, with both universities getting fined $100,000 by the Big Ten. In a statement, the league said the Buckeyes and Wolverines violated the ‘fundamental elements of sportsmanship such as respect and civility” and that “the nature of the incident also jeopardized the safety of participants and bystanders.’
The Big Ten didn’t go as far as Herbstreit may have liked, with the conference opting not to discipline any individual players involved in the incident.