Flag planting at Ohio State would be felony under proposed law

If an Ohio lawmaker gets his way, teams attempting to plant their flags in the middle of Ohio Stadium during Ohio State games will be dealing with more than just pepper spray.

Ohio state Rep. Josh Williams introduced a bill Tuesday that would classify flag planting at Ohio Stadium around Buckeyes football games as a felony.

The O.H.I.O. Sportsmanship Act, authored by Williams, comes in response to Michigan's attempt to plant its flag after a Nov. 30 win at Ohio State, which set off a brawl between the teams. Police employed pepper spray to separate players and other team personnel. Ohio State University police are investigating the incident, which involved multiple law enforcement agencies and resulted in an injury to an officer.

According to Williams' bill, "No person shall plant a flagpole with a flag attached to it in the center of the football field at Ohio stadium of the Ohio State University on the day of a college football competition, whether before, during, or after the competition. Whoever violates this section is guilty of a felony of the fifth degree."

A fifth-degree felony is the least severe in Ohio and carries a penalty of six to 12 months in prison, up to a $2,500 fine and up to five years' probation.

Williams, a Republican, represents Ohio's 41st district, near Toledo and the Ohio-Michigan border, where many Buckeyes and Wolverines fans intermingle. He told ESPN that the Ohio Stadium incident, along with several other college football scuffles around flag planting during rivalry weekend, caught his attention.

"After it happened at five separate games during Rivalry Week, and seeing that there was no immediate movement, I thought it was necessary to send a signal to our institutions of higher learning that they need to come up with policies to prevent this in the future so it doesn't risk harm to our law enforcement officers or student-athletes or fans," Williams told ESPN. "[Ohio State-Michigan] is the No. 1 rivalry in all of sports, not just college sports, and to see it devolve all the way down to this level, it just disrespects not only the institution, but the college programs themselves. More importantly, it provided a true safety hazard."

Ohio's two-year General Assembly closes next week, so the O.H.I.O. Sportsmanship Act likely will need to be reintroduced in the next cycle. Williams plans to do that if he doesn't see further steps from the Big Ten, NCAA or individual schools to curb flag planting, describing the bill as "a shot across the bow, putting our institutions on notice."

NCAA president Charlie Baker told ESPN's Dan Murphy that there have been conversations in committees and by conferences about flag planting.

"I think the conferences are pretty serious, and so are the schools about taking a look at how they might create a more aggressive approach to dealing with that," Baker said Wednesday.

The Big Ten issued $100,000 fines to both Ohio State and Michigan following the incident, but no other individual discipline has been specified. In reference to the fines, Williams said: "That's pennies, that's nothing."

Michigan coach Sherrone Moore also mimicked flag planting while appearing on the videoboard at the school's men's basketball game Saturday at home against Iowa as the crowd roared.

"That indicates that that institution is not taking this incident seriously," Williams said. "We're bragging about it, and it's going to continue in the future, and that's going to cause increased risk, increased security costs and potential for violence, as a result of a college football game."

Baker told Murphy that the safety of athletes is a major priority for the NCAA, which wants to have policies that discourage such incidents in the championships it oversees, adding that he hoped the rules would be similar across the board.

Williams said a criminal penalty was needed because those who travel across state lines and violate university policies likely would avoid any significant repercussions. Williams, who said he coached youth sports for 15 years, is a strong advocate of sportsmanship and noted that the bill would apply to Ohio State players planting flags after home games.

Williams earned his law degree from the University of Toledo. He described himself as "a Buckeye, through and through," while adding that his family has a mix of Ohio State and Michigan fans.

"We have a great rivalry. I enjoy the rivalry, win, lose or draw," Williams said. "That was a tight game. It wasn't a blowout victory. You know, Michigan should have taken its victory, and we take our loss on the chin and live to fight another day, concentrate on the next week and the next year, the next recruitment period. But instead, we have to have this conversation."