A melee broke out at midfield of Ohio Stadium after Michigan upset No. 2 Ohio State 13-10 on Saturday.
After the Wolverines’ fourth straight win in the series, players converged at the block “O” to plant its flag. The Ohio State players were in the south end zone singing their alma mater in front of the student section.
When the Buckeyes saw the Wolverines’ flag, they rushed toward the 50-yard line. Social media posts showed Michigan offensive lineman Raheem Anderson carrying the flag on a long pole to midfield, where the Wolverines were met by dozens of Ohio State players and fights broke out.
Buckeyes defensive end Jack Sawyer was seen ripping the flag off the pole and taking the flag as he scuffled with several people trying to recover the flag.
A statement from the Ohio State Police Department read:
“Following the game, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies assisted in breaking up an on-field altercation. During the scuffle, multiple officers representing Ohio and Michigan deployed pepper spray. OSUPD is the lead agency for games and will continue to investigate.”
Michigan running back Kalel Mullings on FOX said:
“For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game. It’s bad for the sport, bad for college football. At the end of the day, some people got to learn how to lose, man.
“You can’t be fighting and stuff just because you lost the game. We had 60 minutes and four quarters to do all that fighting. 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.”
Once order was restored, officers cordoned the 50-yard line, using bicycles as barriers.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day in his postgame press conference said he wasn’t sure what happened.
“I don’t know all the details of it. But I know that these guys are looking to put a flag on our field and our guys weren’t going to let that happen,” he said.
“I’ll find out exactly what happened, but this is our field and certainly we’re embarrassed at the fact we lost the game, but there’s some prideful guys on our team that weren’t just going to let that happen.”
The Big Ten has not yet released a statement on the incident.
–Field Level Media
