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    • MSU’s Alan Haller asks Big Ten to revisit Michigan feud
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    MSU’s Alan Haller asks Big Ten to revisit Michigan feud

    Online Niel Posted on

    East Lansing – After a mostly clean 60 minutes of play, the final moments of Saturday’s Michigan-Michigan State football game turned ugly when the players tangled on the field. And Spartans athletic director Alan Haller isn’t happy with the scene.

    First reported by the Lansing State Journal and confirmed by The Detroit News, Haller called Big Ten officials shortly after the game, sharing his disappointment with the entire situation and asking the conference to review the situation for disciplinary action.

    “I called the commissioner right after the game,” Haller said Monday. “I thought sportsmanship policy should be involved and asked the Big Ten to look into it.”

    Haller was not given a timeline for the Big Ten overhaul. The News reached out to the Big Ten for comment but did not receive a response. A message left with Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel was not immediately returned.

    Saturday’s brawl was the latest installment in what has turned into a violent recent history of the rivalry. After losing to the Wolverines in 2022, a group of Spartan players were involved in a fight inside the Michigan Stadium tunnelattacking two Michigan players. Seven of the players I’ve seen charges filed against them by the Washtenaw County District Attorney’s office, eight received some sort of suspension from Michigan State athletics and the school itself was fined $100,000 by the Big Ten — the largest fine in conference history.

    But Haller doesn’t think Saturday’s incident should be the subject of criminal charges. All he wants is for the conference to enforce its disciplinary rules.

    “I don’t think this situation should have been a criminal incident, and I don’t think it should have been as good,” Haller said. “This is a sports policy situation and the conference will look into it. And it is my desire that the same standard that everyone is held to, be held to the same standard. But I don’t think that incident, nor this incident, is a criminal situation.”

    Saturday night’s showdown began after a shoving match between Michigan linebacker Colston Loveland and Michigan State defensive lineman Anthony Jones escalated, with Loveland headbutting Jones as the two huddled together. Wolverines win 24-17.

    Then players from both teams, but mostly from Michigan because the stage was close to its edge, spread out on the stage as it swelled into a bigger fight. Players and staff members were pushed down.

    “We had multiple recruits and our own secondary coming through to break it, to protect, to get out there,” Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith said. “Like I said, I didn’t look in detail at every angle and more. I know the conference will be analyzed. I contacted them.”

    An overhead view from a Big Ten Network broadcast showed running back Kalel Mullings stepping on someone Smith confirmed was a member of the Michigan State staff.

    “Yeah, we had a staff member that was in the fray and a player in the fray,” Smith said Monday. “And that’s why we hope they (the Big Ten) look at it.”

    Moments after the game, Loveland told the Big Ten Network’s Brooke Fletcher, “The little brother stayed to do little things. So MSU, the little brother, can do whatever they want. I knew it was going to get broken, but everything within the game we do well. And then if they want to be busy, we’ll be busy.”

    His head coach, first-year Michigan head Sherrone Moore, offered a more controlled approach.

    “I told the team it was unacceptable no matter what happened and how it started,” Moore said after the game. “There are guys chirping at us and we’re responding. The guy headbutted Colston at the end. Our job is to represent this university. It’s not to answer that. I’ll let the referees handle that. It’s something that we will deal with internally and take care of. It’s not Michigan football. That’s not who we are.”

    On Monday, given a day to process the events, Moore said he had not heard from the Big Ten about the brawl and repeatedly said his team would handle the discipline internally.

    “This is not how we represent the University of Michigan, the Block M or the winged helmet,” Moore said at Monday’s news conference. “So we’re going to take care of it, so it never happens again.”

    No discipline has been announced against Michigan or Michigan State as of publication, either internally or within the conference itself.

    Staff writer Angelique S. Chengelis contributed.

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