On the heels of a tense week rife with team-wide brawls and poor sportsmanship, Kirk Herbstreit called for a “return to civility” in college football.

While appearing on ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, Herbstreit shared his thoughts on the series of shocking events that took place across the college football landscape in Week 14. In total, eight fights transpired during rivalry weekend – none of which were bigger than Ohio State versus Michigan.

Moments after the final whistle solidified the Wolverines’ 13-10 upset win over the Buckeyes, Michigan players attempted to plant their team’s flag on top of Ohio State’s midfield logo – prompting a raucous brawl involving players and staffers from both sides. In an attempt to restore order, police pepper sprayed several of the individuals at the heart of the fracas.

Addressing the incident ahead of conference title weekend, Herbstreit said: “It’s a bad look for the sport what we all watched – and it wasn’t [just] Ohio State-Michigan – it seemed to go on throughout the whole day.

“I think if you prevent, if you make that a rule that you can’t plant the flag, maybe that’s a start. If the home team in those rivalry games, police get out there and kind of protect that – if that becomes the new thing – then you could maybe do that.”

According to Herbstreit, the Michigan-Ohio State brawl is just the latest worrying sign that the pillars of college football are eroding. “Think about this season: flag planting, fans throwing bottles on the field, players fighting, players spitting on each other,” he said. “Let’s try to return to civility and just sportsmanship… get back to sportsmanship.”

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Kirk Herbstreit argued that the brawl between Michigan and Ohio State is a bad look for college football

Kirk Herbstreit argued that the brawl between Michigan and Ohio State is a bad look for college football ( 

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‘College Gameday’ co-host Nick Saban expressed a similar sentiment, asserting that he would never allow his team to plant their flag – which incited fights in Florida vs. Florida State, UNC vs. NC State and Arizona vs. Arizona State – if he were still coaching.

“Well, first of all, I think we need guidelines, but I think to fine these schools $100,000 is like worrying about mouse manure when you’re up to ears in elephant —-,” he began.

“We gotta have guidelines, and I would be more upset with my team trying to plant the flag, because I think that’s disrespectful and doesn’t show much sportsmanship. You know, you wanna defeat the other team, but this disrespect that everybody wants to show is probably not a good part of the game, and I think you have to protect the brand.

“If college football players want to be paid, which they’re getting paid now, then they have to do something to protect the brand,” Saban continued. “The NFL protects their brand. So when you do something like this that’s bad for the game, you gotta learn how to protect the brand. Show sportsmanship so people can identify to the game in a positive way.”