Tom Izzo rants about MSU's punishment, criticizes Michigan tunnel operation
If you wanted Michigan State basketball head coach Tom Izzo's opinion on the punishments handed down from the Big Ten, he certainly delivered.
In a rant to reporters on Monday, Izzo responded to the Big Ten fining Michigan State $100,000 in the events that happened in the Michigan Stadium tunnel.
He also takes issue with Michigan's 'public reprimand' by the Big Ten as well.
MLive's Kyle Austin recorded Izzo's rant and tweeted out what he said.
“I'm completely upset about it," Izzo told reporters on Monday. "I think to get a $100,00 fine, a suspension of a player is fine but to get a fine like that and then the other school gets reprimanded. What the hell does reprimanded mean? I told you guys I’m completely upset by what our players did, as Mel was. I would think that administratively, they should be upset on how the tunnel was handled and how those players ran in there. As I said before, what starts bad, ends bad, so if they were reprimanded enough, they must have found something wrong.”
Izzo also doubles down on the Michigan Stadium tunnel issues, citing two recent events that occurred as the reason why more should've been to prevent what happened in October from happening.
“If it was managed right, there would have been no second part," Izzo continued. "I haven’t talked to anybody here, AD, President. | haven’t talked to the Big Ten office. It’s none of my business. It disgusts me that it happened. It really disgusts me too that it wasn’t handled on the front end since they had a problem with Ohio State a year ago, Penn State this year, and then we get a $100,000 fine and there’s a reprimand.
"Well, what the hell does a reprimand mean? What does it stand for? I’m disappointed and again, I’m going to keep saying it, do not read into that I validate anything that happened. I don’t validate the two players that ran in there, I don’t validate the guy rubbing his head. I don’t validate that grown-ups had a chance to make sure that thing was secure. Grown-ups. I'm not happy with it.”
“It doesn’t surprise me. Been here a lot of years, and seen a lot of things. Watched it happen to Dantonio when they went after our Spartan head.”