Kirk Herbstreit unloads strong stance on punishing players for postgame brawls

College football had just about more fights than they’ve ever had in one day in the sports history on Saturday. It was rivalry week, and it sure played out that way across the country, with tempers flaring at several games across America. On Sunday evening, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit decided to share his stance on the brawls, and how exactly the conferences should punish players involved moving forward.

I think any conference commissioner who had a team or teams involved in the postgame fights owes it to his conference and THE SPORT of CFB to study the film very closely and sit anyone who was involved in being an aggressor to help escalate the situation. Sit those involved for…

— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 2, 2024

“I think any conference commissioner who had a team or teams involved in the postgame fights owes to his conference and THE SPORT of CFB to study the film very closely and sit anyone who was involved in being an aggressor to help escalate the situation. Sit those involved for their next game. Whether it’s a bowl game or playoff game. These dudes need consequences–for their own good!” Herbstreit typed on his Twitter account.

It’s important to note there were brawls in several games across the country, but one of the biggest and most extensive came in Columbus, Ohio, after the Wolverines took down the Buckeyes.

Big Ten issues fines for postgame brawls in Ohio State-Michigan

One of the biggest postgame brawls happened in the Ohio State-Michigan game, when players had to be separated, and the police even broke out the pepper spray to calm things down. As a matter of fact, the Big Ten conference has already issued $100,000 fines to both teams.

A postgame brawl between Michigan and Ohio State that even saw police use pepper spray to try to break things up will cost each program a pretty penny.

According to a report by Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the Big Ten is expected to fine both programs $100,000 for a violation of the league’s sportsmanship policy. The schools are expected to accept the fines. The brawl began after Michigan players attempted to plant a flag at midfield following a 13-10 win.

Ohio State players did not take kindly to that and stormed toward midfield. Some grabbed the flag, and pushing and shoving quickly followed. Some players ended up on the grass as a result. In the ensuing chaos, police even used pepper spray to try to calm things down. OSUPD released a statement on the use of pepper spray after the game.

“Following the game, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies assisted in breaking up an on-field altercation,” the statement read. “During the scuffle, multiple officers representing Ohio and Michigan deployed pepper spray. OSUPD is the lead agency for games & will continue to investigate.”

As for the coaches, they took different tacks after the game.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day seemed to defend his team’s actions to a certain extent, bringing up the heat of the moment and the disrespect Michigan showed in attempting to 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.”

Michigan coach Sherrone Moore was a little more apologetic.

“It was emotions on both sides,” Moore said. “And our guys, I did see they had the flag and guys were waving it around and their guys charged us. So, it’s emotion on both sides, it can’t happen. So, rivalry games get heated, especially this one, it’s the biggest one in the country, so we’ve got to handle that better.”

On3’s Thomas Goldkamp also contributed to this article.