ACC ISSUES FINES, REPRIMANDS FOR RIVALRY BRAWLS

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Postgame and pregame brawls marred the weekend for ACC rivals, resulting in fines and reprimands for four schools.

The Atlantic Coast Con­fer­ence has fined and rep­ri­mand­ed North Car­oli­na, North Car­oli­na State, Vir­ginia, and Vir­ginia Tech fol­low­ing alter­ca­tions at their rival­ry games on Sat­ur­day.  

NC State secured a 35–30 vic­to­ry over North Car­oli­na, but the cel­e­bra­tion turned con­tro­ver­sial when the Wolf­pack plant­ed their flag on the Tar Heels’ field, lead­ing to a postgame brawl between play­ers. Mean­while, a pregame fight erupt­ed between Vir­ginia and Vir­ginia Tech play­ers, pre­ced­ing the Hok­ies’ 37–17 win.  

“In both cas­es, the actions vio­lat­ed the ACC Sports­man­ship Pol­i­cy,” the league said, adding that such behav­ior “tar­nish­es the pas­sion­ate on-field play between these insti­tu­tions.”  

While the ACC did not dis­close the exact fines, the max­i­mum penal­ty allowed under its bylaws is $25,000, accord­ing to The Raleigh News & Observ­er. The fines will fund the league’s Weaver-James-Cor­ri­g­an-Swof­ford Post­grad­u­ate Schol­ar­ship account.  

In a sim­i­lar inci­dent, the Big Ten fined Michi­gan and Ohio State $100,000 each after their play­ers fought fol­low­ing Michigan’s upset vic­to­ry in Colum­bus.