Don’t blame the tunnel. Don’t say this is “boys will be boys.” The Michigan-Michigan State postgame incident is a mandatory reflection point for college football.
Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football (sportsmanship sold separately in The Mitten):
First Quarter
The Disgrace in the Big House
Don’t blame the tunnel. That’s a cop-out, an excuse, a sidestepping of what really happened.
Don’t dismiss it as a boys-will-be-boys scrape. What Michigan State players did in that tunnel was an assault, and no one should be surprised or act outraged if charges are filed.
Don’t wave it off as the simple byproduct of a heated rivalry. There are a lot of teams and schools that hate each other without the postgame scene turning as ugly as it did in the Big House on Saturday night.
When a group of Michigan State (1) players surrounded and assaulted a helmet-less Michigan (2) player identified as Ja’Den McBurrows after the Wolverines beat the Spartans 29-7, that was loser behavior. Dangerous behavior. Video of what seems to be a separate assault surfaced Sunday, and it’s egregious as well.
That this travesty happened within the context of a football game is an embarrassment to Michigan State and coach Mel Tucker (3). The program has followed a brilliant 2021 season with a bust in ’22, and it was hard not to watch that display of aggression and wonder why the Spartans have been comparatively meek on the field. Unfortunately for Tucker, this will assuredly become the defining image of his program for the 2022 season.
“As Spartans, our program has a responsibility to uphold the highest level of sportsmanship,” Tucker tweeted Sunday morning. “While emotions were very high at the conclusion of our rivalry game at Michigan Stadium, there is no excuse for behavior that puts our team or our opponents at risk. In complete cooperation with law enforcement, the Big Ten Conference and MSU and UM leadership, we will evaluate the events in Ann Arbor and take swift and appropriate action.”
While there is an obligation to get to the bottom of the incidents as thoroughly as possible—what precipitated it, primarily, including whether Michigan players initiated any of the interaction—this shouldn’t be overly complicated. As coaches like to say, “The film don’t lie.” And there is film, courtesy of Detroit News writer Matt Charboneau. (The source of the second video is unclear.) Many names and numbers of the assailants are clearly visible.
This much seems clear: Michigan State leadership has little choice but to come down hard on the involved players. It doesn’t matter what the impact is upon the depth chart. Michigan State took the first step late Sunday, suspending four players indefinitely. The Big Ten office and law enforcement will want to have their says in this. Commissioner Kevin Warren (4), who attended the game and has a son on the Michigan State roster, doesn’t want this video as a defining example of what Big Ten rivalries are about.
Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images
If the Spartans players involved are suspended for multiple games or the rest of the year, they might be getting off lightly. Assault charges could carry a far more negative impact than missing some football games.
Beyond the immediate repercussions, the incident offers a wider reflection point for how everyone in college football—fans, media, coaches, players, administrators and staffers—approach these games. Maybe the whole sport could use a deep breath, and to consider the concept of winning and losing with some element of dignity.
First, let’s dispense with excuse-making and finger-pointing. Take, for instance, the Michigan Stadium tunnel (5).
The Big House was built nearly a century ago with a single entrance and exit area. For decades, it was perfectly functional. Now, some people are saying Michigan needs to build a second tunnel to avoid player conflict. (Two weeks ago, Penn State and Michigan players had some conflict in the same area, in which some Nittany Lions apparently threw peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (6) at the Wolverines. That’s preferable to throwing blows.) That’s stupid. Blaming the stadium is like blaming the weather for walking outside in a thunderstorm and getting wet.
What needs to happen in that tunnel area is for players to go directly to their locker rooms from the field. If that’s too much to ask, then it’s up to the staffs the size of small armies to take charge, form a buffer and keep the teams from interacting. Michigan reportedly had extra tunnel security on hand Saturday night, but they certainly didn’t show up in any observable way on the video of the assaults. Nor did any coaches.
Second: fans need to stay in their lane (7)—and, ideally, stay in their seats. There was a third video from Saturday night showing unacceptable behavior, reportedly before the game, of a fan reaching down and touching Tucker’s head. “Keep your hands to yourself” is basic preschool teaching; do we need to offer a refresher course to idiots who attend football games?
The second part of that is the dynamic of fans storming the field after big wins. Look, those are great scenes and (usually) memorably fun for those who are part of it. But they also create dangerous situations that put a lot of people—visiting teams and the fans themselves—in harm’s way. There are scary moments if you’ve ever been caught up in that situation—I’ve seen fans trapped and nearly crushed against walls or underneath goal posts on multiple occasions, and opposing teams will assume a defensive posture as chaos churns around them. Not excusing Alabama wide receiver Jermaine Burton for striking a fan during the field storm at Tennessee a couple weeks ago—Nick Saban did that for him—but there is an inherent risk in entering the field of play.
Third, and this is not specifically aimed at the events in the Big House on Saturday: the most common loser’s lament is to blame the officials (8). This falls in line with the growing American trend of simply not accepting defeat and somehow trying to invalidate the results because the other side cheated. Bad calls are not an excuse to, say, litter the field with garbage (see: Tennessee vs. Mississippi, 2021).
Fourth: if there is a way to lessen the class warfare (9) that comes with college football, especially rivalries, it would be a good thing. Fans (and sometimes coaches and administrators) are tirelessly looking for evidence that their school has more class than the dirty bums on the other side of the state. It’s a universal dynamic that is probably as old as higher education itself, but Michigan-Michigan State is certainly fraught with it. (The gold-standard in tut-tutting a rival about who has more class is Duke-North Carolina basketball, but that’s a different story for a different day.)
Two realities: no school is an ivory tower, and it’s always good when the more arrogant side recognizes that; if your school is the one being looked down upon, don’t give your smug rival fresh material by which to further disdain you.
And finally: maybe the school’s official social media accounts should tone down the taunting (10). Yes, a lot of the posts tweaking a defeated opponent can be very funny and make for media fodder. But maybe leave that to the message-boarders (and wiseacre columnists), as opposed to the official accounts taking shots. The best way to win is still to shake hands with the other team and, if you want to make a statement, just point at the scoreboard on the way out of the stadium.
There is nothing wrong with taking the high road in victory. And there is a lot right with taking the high road in defeat, too. After throwing a great rivalry in the gutter Saturday in Ann Arbor, that seems like a good reminder.