Tom Izzo bashes Big Ten's decision to fine Michigan State $100K for U-M tunnel incident
On Monday, the Big Ten Conference announced additional punishment for Michigan State University in the wake of the tunnel incident at Michigan Stadium on Oct. 29 following the game between the Spartans and Wolverines.
Michigan State was fined $100,000, the largest in the history of the Big Ten, and MSU defensive back Khary Crump was suspended for the first eight games of the 2023 season. Crump was charged with felonious assault after allegedly using his helmet to strike a Wolverines player.
The University of Michigan, meanwhile, was issued a public reprimand “with the protocol outlined in the Big Ten Conference Football Game Management Manual policy.” That was the only "punishment" that U-M received from the Big Ten.
As one could imagine, that didn't sit well with several people within and close to Michigan State University, including men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo. While Izzo agreed with the suspension of Crump, the basketball coach slammed the Big Ten for the discrepancy between the punishments for MSU and U-M.
"I'm completely upset with it," Izzo said. "I think to get a $100,000 fine — a suspension of a player is fine but to get a fine like that and then the other school gets reprimanded. What the hell does 'reprimanded' mean?"
Izzo reiterated that he was disappointed in the actions taken by Michigan State student-athletes in the U-M tunnel, and that he thought head football coach Mel Tucker handled the situation properly by suspended eight players who were involved.
However, Izzo publicly criticized the University of Michigan for allowing two Wolverine players, Gemon Green and Ja'Den McBurrows, to run up the tunnel alongside MSU's football team.
"I'm completely upset by what our players did, as Mel was," Izzo said. "I would think that, administratively, [Michigan] should be upset on how the tunnel was handled and how those players ran in there.
"As I said before, what starts bad, ends bad. And so, if they were reprimanded enough, they must have found something wrong."
Later on Monday, University of Michigan athletic director Warde Manual issued a statement regarding the Big Ten's public reprimand of the university, stating that the reprimand was due to a fan reaching down and touching Tucker as the head coach left the field.
If this was in fact the reason for the Big Ten's reprimand of the University of Michigan, that would imply that the conference does not believe U-M is guilty of any wrong-doing whatsoever for the tunnel incident.
Izzo wholeheartedly disagrees that the University of Michigan is innocent of any wrong-doing for the tunnel incident, and pointed to recent altercations between the Wolverines with Penn State and Ohio State inside the tunnel as proof that certain safety measures should have been taken by U-M ahead of the annual game against MSU.
"If it was managed right, there would have been no second part," Izzo said. "It disgusts me that [the incident] happened.
"It really digusts me too that it wasn't handled on the front end, since they had a problem with Ohio State a year ago, Penn State this year, and then we get a $100,000 fine and there's a reprimand. Well, what the hell does reprimand mean? What does it stand for?"
Izzo reiterated that he does not excuse the behavior of any of the Michigan State student-athletes who were involved in the incident. But he also doesn't believe that U-M's Green and McBurrows should have been allowed to enter the tunnel alongside Michigan State's football team following the game.
"I'm disappointed. And again, I'm going to keep saying it: Do not read in that I validate anything that happened. I don't validate the two players that ran in there, I don't validate the guy rubbing [Tucker's] head. I don't validate that grown-ups had a chance to make sure that thing was secure. Grown-ups. Kids are gonna act differently."
While Izzo said he does not believe either university deserved to be fined for the incident, the basketball coach took more issue with the discrepancy between Michigan State's fine and Michigan's "public reprimand" as punishments.
"Maybe my own administration will be mad at me for saying this, but I'm not happy with it," Izzo said. "I just found out about it. But it doesn't surprise me.”
Izzo then pointed to the 2018 pregame dust-up between Michigan State and Michigan's football teams, and implied that the Big Ten Conference took the Wolverines side in that incident as well.
Under previous head coach Mark Dantonio, Michigan State football had a tradition of walking, arm-in-arm, across the full length of the Spartan Stadium field. However, the Big Ten determined that MSU violated the conference's sportsmanship policy by arriving late “and initiated contact with multiple members of Michigan’s team who were legitimately on the field during pregame warmups."
The incident led to physical contact and jawing between players on both sides, and Michigan linebacker Devin Bush infamously used his cleats to kick at and scuff up MSU's Spartan helmet logo at midfield.
As a result, the Big Ten issued a $10,000 fine and publicly reprimanded Dantonio. Likewise, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and Bush were issued public reprimands.
“I've been here a lot of years, been through a lot of things,” Izzo said. “I watched it happen to (Mark) Dantonio, when they went after our Spartan head. I got some other ones (for) the book I'm gonna write after I'm dead.
“And maybe there's things I don't know. I hope so. ... I think it should be a lot more equal, like I thought the other one at Spartan Stadium should have been.”
Izzo wasn't done yet either.
"You know what, I'm a damn Michigan State guy," he said. "And I do not condone anything that our student-athletes do wrong, and there were some things that were done wrong. But I'm also held accountable to any mistake I make — or even ones I don't make, I'm held accountable for. A reprimand? What does that mean? We do we get to do? What changes? …
“So a sore spot. And a sore spot because I love this place. I think everything should be treated equal. And I think that when adults have a chance to handle a problem that's been a problem before and it doesn't get handled, what starts, bad ends.”
Izzo said he had not spoken to Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, MSU athletic director Alan Haller or interim university President Teresa K. Woodruff about his sentiments.
“Yeah, it sticks in my craw. You're right,” he said. “Because I'm a Mel Tucker fan, I'm Mark Dantonio fan, I'm a Michigan State fan. I'm not standing back on that. I don't care if it's the commissioner or whatever. I do not think that was right. So, my apology to my president, my AD, if that upsets them.
“This is totally Tom Izzo. But Tom Izzo has been through a lot more than my AD and my president, too. And I just, I don't know. I should just let it go. I don't feel like letting it go.”
Michigan State and Michigan will meet on the basketball court on Jan. 7 in East Lansing, and again on Feb. 18 in Ann Arbor.
