Fans throwing snowballs results in unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for Colorado State
It’s rare a fan — or fans — can have as direct an impact on the course of the game as the crowd at the Colorado State–Air Force did on Saturday evening. And it involved snowballs.
With snowy conditions settling over Colorado, there was plenty of potential ammunition for the Colorado State student section to form and lob projectiles. Rather than hurling snowballs at each other, they had a different target: The Air Force bench.
And for their efforts, the student section got their team tagged with a 15-yard penalty and were moved back to the 16th row and beyond — presumably out of range of the Air Force bench.
It also resulted in perhaps a first-ever announcement from an official.
“After the play, unsportsmanlike conduct on the Colorado State bench. Would the audience please refrain from throwing snowballs. It will continue to cost Colorado State,” the official said.
Air Force went on to win, 30-13, and remain undefeated at 8-0.
But it was not the only time spectators caused an incursion in college football on Saturday
A 4 p.m. EST kickoff scheduled for Cal and USC in Berkeley was delayed as a group of apparent UC-Berkeley students went on the field and protested. The protest was in response to the school suspending a professor — Ivonne del Valle — for reportedly stalking and harassing a UC-Davis professor, Joshua Clover.
Students told Bay Area TV station KQED they intended to disrupt the football game between Cal and USC in some way. The protest was peaceful, with around a dozen students sitting at midfield and wearing T-shirts with a message calling for justice for del Valle.
They also carried a sign reading “NO JUSTICE NO GAME.”
Police on scene told the Orange County Register’s Luca Evans that the protesters are being taken to jail. The nature and extent of their charges is not yet known, or if any end up being formally brought against the protesters.
Students in support of del Valle, the lone Mexican woman among the universities Spanish and Portuguese faculty, have stated they are willing to escalate measures to a hunger strike if necessary. Nearly 300 people have signed an online petition calling for her reinstatement.
UC-Berkeley suspended del Valle for a string of behaviors — some that del Valle admitted to in an interview with KQED — that stemmed from what she said was a lack of support from the university after apparently having devices hacked.