Brawls occur after Michigan drops a stunning upset loss to rival Ohio State

CNN
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An ugly brawl after the final whistle marred Michigan’s shocking upset win over rival Ohio State, which entered the game ranked No. 2 in the nation.

In the 120th edition of ‘The Game’, the Buckeyes were nearly a 20-point favorite at home as they looked to snap a three-game losing streak against their archrivals and secure their spot in the Big Ten Championship.

The game was tied at 10 points apiece in the game’s final minute as Michigan drove the ball deep into Ohio State territory. Michigan took a 13-10 lead on a 21-yard Dominic Zvada field goal.

With no timeouts remaining, Ohio State was unable to answer and Michigan escaped The Horseshoe with its fourth straight win in one of the nation’s most heated rivalries.

The win helped salvage a disappointing season for defending national champion Michigan, but things took an ugly turn after the game ended.

A Wolverines player tried to plant a Michigan banner on the Buckeyes logo at midfield in Ohio Stadium, leading to pushing and shoving and eventually being thrown by members of both teams.

It took several minutes for stadium security and police to separate the two teams, with pepper spray being deployed to bring the situation under control, according to multiple media outlets.

The telecast showed players wiping their eyes and coughing in the aftermath of the brawl.

CNN has reached out to Ohio State University police and Columbus police for more information about the incident.

“For such a great game, you hate to see something like that after the game. Bad for the sport. Bad for college football,” Michigan running back Kalel Mullings told the FOX broadcast.

“In the end, some people had to learn to lose. You can’t fight this just because you lost the game. All the fight, we had 60 minutes, we had four quarters to do all that fight, ​​” and now people want to talk. It’s bad for the game. People need to be better.”

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said he thinks all of his players are OK after the incident, adding “there were some kind of crazy things going on down there.”

The sixth-year coach also described the moments leading up to the ugly scenes.

“I don’t know all the details of it, but I know these guys are looking to put a flag on our field and our guys weren’t going to let that happen,” Day said. “So I want to find out exactly what happened, but this is our field and we’re certainly embarrassed that we lost the game. But there are some proud guys on the team who weren’t going to just let that happen.”

CNN has reached out to the Michigan and Ohio State athletic departments for comment on the postgame altercation.

CNN’s Jacob Lev contributed to this report