EAST LANSING — Jonathan Smith remained measured in his response to the on-field fight that occurred in the final seconds of Michigan State football’s loss Saturday at Michigan.

He left the stern words for his athletic director.

Alan Haller on Monday said the Big Ten is looking into the altercation that began with 25 seconds remaining in the Wolverines’ 24-17 victory at Michigan Stadium. Overhead broadcast video from Big Ten Network showed U-M tight end Colson Loveland and MSU defensive end Anthony Jones pushing and shoving each other, before Loveland used his helmet to head-butt Jones.

The incident happened in front of the Michigan sideline, and the entire Wolverines bench ran onto the field into the skirmish. Video showed one Spartan player get pulled to the ground, and Haller and Smith confirmed an MSU player and staff member were in a pile where cameras caught U-M running back Kalel Mullings making a stomping motion near where the two from MSU emerged from the scrum. It is unclear from the video if anyone was under where Mullings at the time.

When asked if anyone who was part of the MSU team got injured, Haller responded: “Let's leave that to the conference to look into. I'm sure all of that will come out at some point.”

“And so I can see. You hear about the former players and how much this thing means. After experiencing this thing one time, this thing is different. And that crystallized for me on Saturday.”

Haller, a former Lansing and MSU police officer, said he would not approach Washtenaw County about potential criminal charges. Seven MSU players were issued criminal charges by Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit for their roles in a postgame fight with two Wolverines inside the Michigan Stadium tunnel following the Spartans’ 29-7 loss at U-M on Oct. 29, 2022.

“I don't plan on doing that. I don't think that situation (in 2022) should have been a criminal incident, and I don't think this should be as well,” Haller said. “This is a sportsmanship policy situation, and the conference will look at it. And it's my wish that the same standard that everyone's held to, that (U-M) be held to the same standard. But I do not believe that incident or this incident is a criminal situation.”

Six of the MSU players along with another who was not charged got suspended by the Big Ten for the final four games of the 2022 season, while Khary Crump also was received four additional games in 2023. All seven had their charges reduced in court.

Then-Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren also levied a $100,000 fine against MSU, the largest in conference history, after the incident.

Haller said he was not given a timeline for a response or if he knows how or when the Big Ten or current commissioner Tony Petitti might act. A conference spokesperson has not yet responded to an email request from the Free Press sent Sunday about a review of the incident or potential punishment.

Also a former MSU and NFL football player, Haller said he wants U-M “held to the same standard that every school is held to when it comes to things like this” by the Big Ten. “I mean, we're held to a certain standard. I want them to be held to that same standard.”

Asked if there is any reason he believes Michigan would not be, Haller took a 5-second pause.

“We have a new commissioner. We have new leadership in the conference office,” Haller said. “My wish is that the new leadership handles this in a clean slate and treat every school with the same standard.”

Haller also said he does not know if the conference will have access to more angles from the BTN broadcast crews or any of the other Fox Sports ventures such as BTN’s The Journey that did not air live.

“I was on the field right when it happened. And when I looked up and I was holding one of our players, there were three cameras in my face,” he said. “So my guess is there's multiple views of it.”

Saturday’s 117th meeting between MSU and U-M provided yet another in a decade of increasing incidents between the two rivals.

In 2018, before the game at Spartan Stadium on Oct. 20, Wolverines players were on the field warming up when MSU arrived to do its pregame field walk, as was the custom under former coach Mark Dantonio. The Spartans linked arms and kept walking as U-M’s Devin Bush and others stood in their way to break their chain, followed by pushing and shoving. Bush afterward went to midfield and began thrashing his cleats on the Spartan helmet logo.

The Big Ten in the days that followed issued a $10,000 fine to Michigan State and determined MSU violated the Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy by walking across the field with linked arms “and initiated contact with multiple members of Michigan’s team who were legitimately on the field during pregame warmups,” according to a conference release at the time. The league also publicly reprimanded both universities along with Dantonio and then-U-M coach Jim Harbaugh for their actions.

And before the 2014 meeting in East Lansing, then Wolverines linebacker Joe Bolden slammed a tent stake into the Spartan Stadium turf. Former U-M coach Brady Hoke publicly apologized to Dantonio and MSU after “our act of poor sportsmanship.”

As for his initial impression and takeaway from his first game in the rivalry, Smith – who played and coached at Oregon State – said, “We will not forget Saturday night, I promise you that, OK. But we're moving forward.”

MSU (4-4, 2-3 Big Ten) hosts unbeaten and No. 13 Indiana at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Spartan Stadium, while U-M (5-3, 3-2) is back in Ann Arbor to host unbeaten and No. 1 Oregon at the same time.

“I think you just walk into the place, and there's a genuine dislike,” Smith said of his Michigan Stadium experience. “And you could feel that from the get-go of pregame, from the crowd to the to the place, and then sharing the tunnel. And so that's unique in a rivalry piece, to share that tunnel and be walking by these guys nonstop.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MSU AD wants Michigan 'held to same standard' after on-field fight