The Michigan Wolverines didn’t leave the game against Purdue in doubt on Saturday. The Jim Harbaugh-led program rolled over the Boilermakers and pulled away for good in the second half, which means that the edge they unfairly tried to gain didn’t work.
While speaking to the press, Harbaugh went on a rant that criticized Purdue’s treatment of the visiting team, and the sanitary conditions of their locker room.
As far as rant’s go, Harbaugh remained calm and stuck to the point. He resisted the urge to let his emotions cloud his clarity, and called for the Big Ten conference to set a minimum benchmark of comfort and quality for visiting teams.
Portion of Harbaugh's rant pic.twitter.com/yu9s8CXyHn
— angelique (@chengelis) September 25, 2017
The visiting locker room was so hot, that many of his players decided to change and get ready on their air conditioned bus instead.
Land of 10 has provided a transcript of Harbaugh’s call to action for the Big Ten to step in and improve the conditions for visiting teams across the conference:
“We are going to look at everything we are going to do for the visiting team, as it relates to a standard of care for the visitors. On multiple levels. It’s become apparent after going around to all the visiting schools in the last couple years that it’s a conscious effort of gamesmanship. It is unsportsmanlike when you have locker rooms that are too small. They’re not heated or cooled properly. There’s no air conditioning in this case, such a tight, cramped environment.
“People walking by, they’re watching you dress. A number of urinals or bathrooms for players, I think there were two. There’s not even a private door around it. And then mainly the health and safety of the players. Very small space for a training room that had nothing different. This is no different than the facility I saw in 1986. I’m not putting this on Purdue. This needs to be addressed by the league and by the commissioner. We’re going to lead the way.
“It doesn’t even seem sanitary. You were all in there. We already talked about the heat. And it seems to be a conscious effort to gamesmanship, gain an advantage over an opponent. I wish i would have taken a picture of the actual table that is given to the visitors to put the players on when they are injured. It looks like it was from the 20s. It was ripped. it’s just not good.
“I asked (defensive coordinator) Don Brown, did you see this in the ACC? Not there, not in the Pac-12. Injured players taken to a student health center in a van? There’s a lot of things that need to be addressed.”
The Wolverines get the upcoming week off, then play their in-state rival Michigan State. They go back on the road the week after that when they take on the Indiana Hoosiers.
Let’s hope their facilities are more to the standards that Harbaugh would like to see maintained across the FBS.
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