Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh was not at all satisfied with the current state of the visiting locker room and amenities provided by Purdue last weekend, and he was quick to put the rest of the Big Ten on notice with regard to visiting team amenities and accommodations. Perhaps that word of caution designed to focus on player safety around the entire conference was received well by Michigan’s in-state rivals from East Lansing.
Perhaps not at all by coincidence, Michigan State football’s equipment staff shared multiple photos on their Twitter account Wednesday with a welcome message to Iowa ahead of this weekend’s Michigan State-Iowa game.
Welcoming Iowa to the visiting side of Spartan Stadium this weekend. pic.twitter.com/OoAwZneCMX
— MSU Football EQ (@SpartanFB_eq) September 27, 2017
A quick scan of Michigan State’s equipment staff Twitter account revealed no similar photos of the visiting locker room since at least the start of the 2015 season. It doesn’t take a genius to realize this tweet was inspired by Harbaugh’s recent rant, even if it was just in good humor responding to Harbaugh.
Harbaugh took shots at Purdue’s visiting locker room and facilities after last weekend’s road game against the Boilermakers, including inadequate access to air conditioning, the state of the trainer’s table and the lack of proper x-ray equipment.
Portion of Harbaugh's rant pic.twitter.com/yu9s8CXyHn
— angelique (@chengelis) September 25, 2017
Harbaugh challenged all schools around the Big Ten, including Michigan, to ensure visiting facilities are up to date to better provide for the health and well-being of the Big Ten’s entire student-athlete base rather than worry about creating certain home-field advantages. This can be an obstacle for some schools in the Big Ten due to not having the financial stability and backing a school like Michigan has, and some stadiums and facilities are in need of renovations. That includes Purdue, but Purdue has already been working toward improving their football facilities. Remember last year when a leak flooded a portion of the football stadium? Purdue is well aware of the need to upgrade and renovate its football stadium and facilities, and they didn’t need Harbaugh to push them toward it.
Harbaugh calling out Purdue in the way he did may have rubbed some people the wrong way, but the message seems to have worked within the same week. We’ll see next week if Michigan State’s equipment staff has any more tweets up their sleeves when they visit the Wolverines next week in Big Ten play.
