The tunnel at The Big House caused another disturbance Saturday.
Thankfully, this incident at Michigan Stadium didn’t end in a brawl, as happened last month when eight Michigan State Spartans players were suspended after jumping two Michigan Wolverines players. But ESPN sideline reporter Molly McGrath reported that Illinois fighting illini head coach Bret Bielema was upset about a delay returning to the field after halftime.
“Bret Bielema came out of the locker room, and was yelling that Michigan was running late and yelled for all of the different officials to hold Michigan back,” McGrath said, “but they let Michigan go and Illinois was held back and entered the field late.”
The Michigan Tunnel strikes again pic.twitter.com/GvLYwoXldk
— IllinoisLoyalty (@IllinoisLoyalty) November 19, 2022
Referees added two more minutes on the halftime clock before starting the second half.
After the brawl last month, Michigan enacted new protocols to help prevent incidents in the tunnel, which both teams share to access the locker rooms. There had also been a previous incident during the Penn State Nittany Lions game in October that resulted in a shouting match between both teams at halftime.
Apparently, there is some work to be done to get the issue resolved. College football fans shared their thoughts on the issue Saturday.
“Wait… you’re telling me there’s more issues in that Michigan tunnel??? The same tunnel where they’re always starting stuff??” tweeted AJ King.
Wait… youre telling me there’s more issues in that Michigan tunnel??? The same tunnel where theyre always starting stuff??
— AJ King (@allday__ajking) November 19, 2022
The Illinois-Michigan halftime was extended for two minutes because of a bottleneck in the tunnel as the teams were going back to the field. After what happened after the Michigan State game, that Michigan tunnel situation really needs to get straightened out.
— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) November 19, 2022
@bigten @BigTenNetwork I hope your listening the University of Michigan tunnel is an issue and needs to be addressed. Currently the perception is that the Big Ten is condoning this behavior to continue.
— Josh Locke (@lockej1234) November 19, 2022
It's worked just fine for the overwhelming majority of 95 years.
— Marc 🇨🇦 Laporte (@LeBig_Mac) November 19, 2022
You’d think Michigan could get this figured out. But I’ll credit their culture for that. Just like their basketball culture.
— Sarah Short (@sis1017) November 19, 2022
Why not have the visiting team and home team not use the same tunnel like most places?
— Derek Dunaway (@DerekDunaway) November 19, 2022
https://twitter.com/JohnfromMi/status/1594080732645064704
