College sports leaders would like to figure out a way to put an end to the postgame flag-planting celebrations that sparked physical confrontations around the country during rivalry weekend, most notably at Michigan-Ohio State, where law enforcement officials used pepper spray to separate players.
“It has no place in football or in any sport, and there needs to be repercussions for those that partake in that,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips told The Athletic Monday. “That’s why it’s important for us to get together, commissioners, and set the course moving forward and hold people accountable.”
Tensions flared and melees of varying degrees broke out after victorious visiting teams displayed their flags at NC State–North Carolina, Arizona State–Arizona, Florida–Florida State and South Carolina–Clemson.
At Ohio State, the fight between the Buckeyes and Wolverines after Michigan’s 13-10 upset victory included dozens of players pushing and shoving and some punches being thrown. The Ohio State Police Division said on Saturday that multiple officers representing Ohio and Michigan deployed pepper spray during the fracas.
OSUPD said Monday police were still reviewing the incident and available video of it. One OSUPD officer was injured during the altercation and transported for medical attention; spokesman Dan Hedman said the officer was treated and released. The department also said one person unaffiliated with the two teams was arrested and charged with criminal trespass for leaving the stands and entering the field.
Gameday security at Ohio State, as at most big-time football-playing colleges, includes officers from local, county, state and even federal agencies. OSUPD acts as the lead agency for home football games. Law enforcement officials traveling with the visiting teams can also be involved in gameday security.
Ohio State is one of eight schools with a stadium that has an official capacity of more than 100,000. Attendance on Saturday was 106,005. Michigan’s Big House regularly has crowds of more than 110,000.
“Obviously, there are more than 100,000 fans and visitors on a game day, and it takes a collaborative approach to provide a safe, family-friendly environment,” Hedman said in an email response to The Athletic. “The Department of Public Safety, along with our public safety partners and the Department of Athletics, use a multi-layered approach to security. Duties include traffic control, in-stadium security and home and away team detail, among other responsibilities.”
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For those in college sports, the focus is now on how to stop this from happening again.
“When you have crossover games (between conferences), it’s important you be on the same page with everyone else,” Phillips said. “That’s why I think a national standard is really important. This crossed over not just in conference games. It’s become commonplace, which is what’s really disturbing. Shame on us if we can’t come together and figure this thing out. But there needs to be some penalties involved for that type of behavior.”
How exactly the conferences would get together to come up with a solution is unclear. The NCAA lacks authority over big-time college football in general. Conferences manage their own officials, but they did create an umbrella organization for training purposes.
When it comes to game management, for example, conferences have varying rules and penalties for postgame field-rushing by fans. The SEC fines schools hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to discourage celebratory fans from swarming the field and the players and coaches on it. Those fines have surpassed a million dollars this year yet done little to deter the raucous postgame celebrations.
The Big Ten doesn’t start handing fines for field storming until a school’s third offense, after first issuing private and public reprimands. At Clemson, where the Gamecocks’ celebrations spilled over on Saturday, fans gather on the field at the end of every game, win or lose; the ACC has no fine system for field storming.
One area where conferences act uniformly is playing rules, which are administered by the NCAA. Steve Shaw, the national coordinator of football officials and NCAA secretary-rules editor, said that while he expects discussion among the playing rules committee during the offseason about how to treat the flag-planting epidemic, his group might not be best equipped to tackle the issue.
The playing rules committee consists of coaches from all three levels of NCAA football and school and conference administrators. Georgia coach Kirby Smart is the current committee chairman, through the College Football Officiating, LLC, was created by the conferences and is overseen by commissioners. They usually have a big say in rules related to safety and sportsmanship.
Shaw said when the game clock runs out and game officials have determined the score is final, they wrap up and leave almost immediately.
Ninety minutes before games, officials are on the field while teams warm up. During that time, officials have jurisdiction over player conduct. Players and coaches can be flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, and penalties can be assessed during game, including disqualification from participating in the game.
“So today, any of that type of postgame stuff all goes back for conference administration and they all have their sportsmanship policies. It’s all handled as part of the conference review of a game,” Shaw said.
The Big Ten fined Ohio State and Michigan $100,000 each for involvement in the postgame fight under the conference’s sportsmanship policy, but handed down no discipline to individual players. The ACC took a similar approach with North Carolina and NC State as well as Virginia Tech and Virginia, where players got into a pregame scuffle. The ACC did not disclose the amount of the fines.
“At the end of the day, we’re supposed to be educating young people and it’s an opportunity to do that in college football,” Phillips said. “So I look forward to having those conversations. It was disappointing to see what happened this past weekend. It remains unacceptable, and we will do something about it.”
— The Athletic‘s Chris Vannini contributed reporting.
(Photo: Isaiah Vazquez / Getty Images)
