Ryan Day leaving flag planting decision to Big Ten

Following Ohio State and Michigan’s postgame fracas on the field at Ohio Stadium, the Big Ten handed down $100,000 fines to each school. And that, seemingly, was the end of the matter from an institutional standpoint.

Going forward, Ryan Day is going to leave such decisions up to the Big Ten and NCAA. And the Ohio State head coach feels much the same way about a potential ban on flag planting in away stadiums.

“I mean obviously it’s a touchy subject because of the way the game ended, but I think that’s up for [commissioner] Tony [Petitti] and the guys at the Big Ten to decide and figure out what’s best. We certainly don’t want situations like that going on after the game,” Day said on Wednesday.

In the immediate aftermath of the skirmish, Day defended the emotional response of his players seeing the Wolverines “plant” — the field turf doesn’t quite allow the stunt to work, really — the block M flag.

Day said his team is full of prideful players who weren’t going to let Michigan plant the flag.

“Yeah I don’t know all the details of it,” Day said in his subdued postgame press conference. “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. 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.”

Specifically in this skirmish, defensive end Jack Sawyer could be seen ripping down the Michigan flag and stepping on it. Sawyer returned to Ohio State for his senior season, along with countless other Buckeyes who passed up the 2024 NFL Draft, to beat Michigan. They leave Columbus 0-4 against the Wolverines.

Day didn’t know specifically if all his players were OK after the game, though there did not appear to be serious injuries from the TV copy. He was also shown on the TV broadcast watching the skirmish as staffers and coaches from both teams broke it up.

“I don’t know if I know all that, right now,” Day said about any injuries for his players. “There was a couple things kind of crazy that went on down there but I think everybody is OK.”

He continued.

“Well I just talked to the team after the game and again, without knowing all the details, there’s some prideful guys on our team that aren’t just going to sit back and watch that happen,” Day said.