Wideout B.J. Cunningham was among the eight MSU players suspended from all team-related activities.

From The State News, Michigan State’s official student newspaper:

Eight members of the MSU football team were suspended by head coach Mark Dantonio on Monday following the ongoing results of an investigation by MSU police into a Nov. 22 altercation at Rather Hall.

It is unclear how long their suspension will last.

Police have identified 10 suspects from the incident and are looking into leads relating to five additional people, a release from the university stated. Police identified the suspects by talking with witnesses and reviewing video tape from Rather Hall. The State News filed a Freedom of Information Request on Monday seeking the video footage.

According to the release: “Pending completion of the police investigation, eight members of the MSU football team identified Monday as being present at the Rather Hall incident were immediately suspended from all daily team-related activities by Coach Mark Dantonio. B.J. Cunningham, Mark Dell, Ashton Leggett, Chris L. Rucker, Fred Smith, Brynden Trawick, Ishmyl Johnson and Jamiihr Williams have been suspended for violation of team rules.”

I have a few thoughts on this news, in no particular order:

1. First of all, this is not something I feel like gloating about or using as a way to taunt Michigan State, their program, or their fans. Yes, this is the second time a serious altercation has happened, and at the very least Glenn Winston was involved in both instances. However, we are still dealing with college students here, as well as an ongoing investigation that has yet to net any criminal charges. Please use tact when discussing this — I have no problem deleting comments that attempt to infer anything other than the facts that have been printed in the news, or any personal attacks on the players involved, period.
2. Obviously, this whole situation reflects very poorly on coach Mark Dantonio, his decision to reinstate Winston after a six-month jail sentence, and his control of the Spartan football team. This goes beyond one or two players, or even one isolated incident — on top of last year’s fight, the State News article says that there was an alleged fight the previous night involving Iota Phi Theta (the fraternity that was holding an event at the residence hall) members and MSU football players at The Small Planet, an East Lansing club. It will be interesting to see how he handles this event — if there really were 15 Spartans involved, including three starters (Cunningham, Dell, and Rucker), what level of punishment is appropriate? It’s tough to say that a coach should kick 15 players off of his team, but this is also the type of incident that cannot be pushed aside just by suspending the players from a lower-tier bowl game and spring practice.
3. What this incident does mean is that Dantonio will be skating on thin ice at Michigan State, and it has nothing to do with the Spartans’ on-field performance. Like it or not, a major college football program constitutes a significant part of how their university is perceived. I would be very surprised if an altercation like this happened again under Dantonio, as he will be doing everything he can to make sure his players stay out of trouble in the wake of this incident, but the administration at MSU cannot be happy with this kind of publicity, and will likely have little to no tolerance for any off-field troubles.
4. I could write a whole other post on the Detroit Free Press’ apparent bias against Michigan and Rich Rodriguez, and the favoritism they show towards Dantonio — Brian has already posted on exactly that subject today, and did not mince his words in doing so. There’s no need for me to repeat what Brian said, so I will only say this: I would be very, very surprised if the Free Press, and specifically Michael Rosenberg, who has already written an article that defends Dantonio’s reinstatement of Winston, would not be calling for Rich Rodriguez’s head on a platter if this incident happened in Ann Arbor. We’ll see how the local media handles the coverage of this incident as the facts come to light.

That’s all I have right now — I’d be interested in hearing your reactions to the case, as long as it stays civil, in the comments. It will be very interesting to see what the fallout of this incident is for Michigan State, Dantonio, and yes, the local media.

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