Subscribe
Follow Us
Rivalry Week got heated as the Ohio State-Michigan game when the Wolverines planted their flag on the OSU logo following the Team Up North's 13-10 upset of the No. 2 squad in the nation. While the Michigan flag-planting incident was the most publicized of the weekend, the move led to fights in several rivalry games around the country, and that's not OK according to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.
“There shouldn’t be flag-planting. Go win the game and go to the locker room,” Sankey said Sunday, per Yahoo Sports. “If you want to plant a flag, you play ‘capture the flag’ or you join the military or you fly to the moon.”
Greg Sankey was not the only college football conference commissioner to condemn the act of flag-planting. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips also addressed the need of the conferences to nip this trend in the bud.
“We have to collectively come together,” Phillips said. “We can do things independently as conferences, but we need to all come together, and our approach must be aggressive. This is unacceptable.”
While a winning team driving their school's flag into the logo of their rivals after a big win goes back at least to Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield doing it back in 2017 against, ironically, Ohio State, the move seemed to draw more ire than ever in Rivalry Week 2024.
College football teams planting their flags in Rivalry Week 2024
Michigan was hardly the only team to spark fights by planting their flag after a big win. In 2024, there were several altercations following wins against in-state rivals.
North Carolina State tried the move in Chapel Hill after winning 35-30 over their rival North Carolina, which tipped off fisticuffs following the game. Florida also drew a physical response from Florida State players for a similar act after the Gators ripped the struggling Seminoles 31-11.
No. 15 South Carolina beat in-state rivals No. 12 Clemson 17-14 and tried to plant their flag in the Tigers' field, which led to scuffles involving both players and fans.
And while it was an Arizona State Sun Devils pitchfork and not exactly a flag, the action sparked a tussle between ASU and Arizona players following the former's 49-7 victory.
In-state or close rival games like Ohio State-Michigan and these others are always intense and it often doesn't take much to incite at least pushing and shoving between two sets of players who likely played against each other in high school and were possibly recruited to both programs. But it wouldn't be shocking if conferences, or even the NCAA, put a rule in place — The Baker Mayfield Rule? — to stop this confrontational act.
