Michigan has plan to keep the peace vs Ohio State in stadium tunnel

Last year's Michigan-Ohio State game in Columbus ended in stunning fashion, both with a Wolverines 13-10 victory and then a postgame fight.

With Saturday's game in Ann Arbor, U-M is hoping to repeat the former and avoid the latter but the school said it won't discuss specific security measures in place to keep order.

"We do increase staffing inside and outside the stadium for this game," athletic department spokesman David Ablauf told the Free Press on Monday in an email.

At the end of last year's game, the brawl broke out after the Wolverines planted their flag in the Ohio State turf to celebrate their upset victory over the No. 2 Buckeyes.

The Buckeyes took exception and a fight ensued, prompting police to use pepper spray to break it up. The Big Ten later fined both programs $100,000 for the incident.

At 98-year-old Michigan Stadium, the home team and road team use the same tunnel to enter and exit the field, which has led to confrontations in the heat of competition.

In the 2021 game against Ohio State, the two teams had to be separated by game officials as they walked up the tunnel to their locker rooms at halftime.

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In October 2022, Michigan players mixed it up with Penn State players in the tunnel at halftime, and a team dietician later said the Nittany Lions threw peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the Wolverines.

Then-Penn State coach James Franklin later complained about the incident, prompting Michigan's then-coach, Jim Harbaugh to accuse him of whining.

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Two weeks after that incident, Michigan defeated Michigan State 29-7. An infamous postgame fight broke out in the tunnel, captured on video.

Michigan State suspended eight players and Washtenaw County prosecutors later filed criminal charges against seven of them. Also in that game, then-MSU coach Mel Tucker reported a fan reached down from the stands and touched his head as he was walking up the tunnel.

Those incidents prompted Michigan to widen the tunnel, now named for former U-M coach Lloyd Carr. The school removed 45 seats from the edges of the tunnel.

"It’s being done to widen access to the field for the competitors and all the game personnel that enter and exit from the tunnel," spokesman Kurt Svoboda told the Free Press in 2023. "Our goal obviously is to ensure that safe and healthy environment for everybody who has to have access to the field."

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Ablauf said Monday the tunnel remains the only entrance to the field for both teams.

"We have processes in place to keep the two teams separated during pre-game, halftime and post-game," he said. "We also have security personnel at all different levels of the tunnel."

Free Press sports writer Tony Garcia contributed to this report.

Contact John Wisely: [email protected]. On X: @jwisely.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan vs Ohio State football fight sets up tunnel security plan