ESPN college football analyst and Ohio State alum Kirk Herbstreit is calling on college football administrators to suspend players involved in multiple brawls this weekend.
The rivalry weekend of fisticuffs started after Michigan’s upset win over Ohio State in Columbus when Wolverine players attempted to plant the Michigan flag in the middle of the Block O at midfield.
An on-field view of the Michigan flag plant and the altercation with Ohio State that followed ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/If9Ng7ecW0
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 30, 2024
Several police officers had to intervene, and many players were pepper sprayed during the melee.
More video of the Ohio State-Michigan midfield brawl pic.twitter.com/YAU19drn8P
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) November 30, 2024
Other brawls stemming from flag-planting attempts occurred at the end of the North Carolina-North Carolina State game, the Florida-Florida State game, and the Arizona-Arizona State game, where ASU players attempted to put a pitchfork in the middle of the field.
On Monday, Herbstreit expressed his feelings on the subject by calling for administrators to scrutinize the video of the incidents and issue suspensions, regardless of whether those suspensions would impact the College Football Playoff.
“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.
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. Sit those involved for…
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 2, 2024
“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 Big 10 conference issued $100,000 fines to Michigan and Ohio State for their collective roles in the fighting.
However, as of the time of this writing, the Big 10 is the only conference to issue any discipline. It is also the only conference with a team in College Football Playoff contention involved in one of the flag-planting fights. Ohio State’s loss to Michigan and Penn State’s subsequent defeat of Maryland knocked the Buckeyes out of the Big 10 championship game. However, the Buckeyes remain an at-large seed in the CFP and would host a first-round playoff game.
Given Ohio State’s significant influence within the conference, it will be interesting to see what, if any, discipline suspensions the conference issues to Buckeye players for their roles in the fight.
