James Franklin calls on the Big Ten for changes after halftime incident against Michigan

The Penn State Nittany Lions and Michigan Wolverines had an exciting matchup for most of Saturday’s contest. However, at the top of everybody’s list to talk about from that game was the interaction that occurred between both teams during halftime. On Tuesday, Penn State head coach James Franklin was not too inclined to address the matter in its totality. Still, he did offer suggestions to prevent this from happening in the future.

“I prefer to talk about these things in the offseason, but the one tunnel is a problem. It’s a problem and has been,” said Franklin. “And to me, we need to put a policy in place from a conference perspective. In my mind that’s gonna stop it. We’re not the first team to kind of get into a jawing match in the tunnel. For me, I want to focus on getting my team in the locker room, not jawing back and forth.”

After a hotly contested first half, things picked up where they left off before either team touched the field. The two teams got into a jawing match in the locker room tunnel and had to be seperated by coaches and officals before finally heading back onto the field for the second half.

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Franklin’s suggestion

There are many solutions that the Big Ten conference can step in and implement that would help alleviate this problem. Franklin’s suggestion would provide an instant solution until a more permanent one can be found.

“There really should be a policy that the first team that goes in, there’s a buffer. Because if not, they start jawing back and forth. And what’s going to happen is something bad is going to happen before we put it in the policy. All there’s gotta be is a two-minute or a minute buffer in between the two teams; that this team in before that team gets close and however we want to do it. But we’re not the first team that’s had issues like that. Under the current structure, we won’t be the last. And to me, there’s a really easy solution, but we gotta do it.”

The game of football is a tough and physical sport, without a doubt. But there is a time and a place for that. And it is certainly not in the tunnels as teams head back to the field. Franklin’s idea could be a step in the right direction for the safety of players and everyone else coming out of the tunnel.