GREENSBORO (AP) — The president of the university system that oversees both North Carolina A&T and North Carolina Central says he is leaving the discipline up to the schools after their latest football meeting ended with a brawl that police broke up with pepper spray.
Erskine Bowles, who leads the University of North Carolina system, spoke with the colleges' chancellors about the fight that took place Saturday night after N.C. Central's 27-22 win.
"We are all in complete agreement that this sort of unsportsmanlike behavior was just plain wrong, and that it will not be condoned or tolerated within our university," Bowles said in a statement released by his office.
"I am confident that both chancellors are going to handle this matter appropriately on their own campuses and will take steps to ensure that this sort of thing doesn't happen again."
The fight broke out shortly after N.C. Central intercepted a pass to seal the victory and the Eagles stormed the field and jumped on the A&T logo, prompting the Aggies to confront them.
Coaches were unable to stop the melee, and after several minutes at least one police officer from Central used pepper spray to break it up. The schools said nobody was hurt, but N.C. Central suspended an unidentified player for this week's game against Presbyterian.
It is unclear whether NCCU and A&T will meet as scheduled next Aug. 30 in Durham.
"We owe them a game, and at some point, we will honor our agreement that we will return the game," A&T athletic director DeLores "Dee" Todd said. "When that's going to be, I can't say."
Neither Todd nor Central athletic director Bill Hayes returned phone messages left Tuesday by The Associated Press.
"We've moved on, and we're looking forward to playing Presbyterian this weekend," first-year coach Mose Rison said at his weekly news conference.
The chancellors of the schools, Charlie Nelms of N.C. Central and Stanley F. Battle of A&T, issued a statement Monday night saying no decision has been reached about the series, but "we are jointly collaborating as sister institutions to decide the best course."
The game was billed as the return of a rivalry that dates back to 1924. It was the teams' first meeting since N.C. Central beat A&T 23-22 in the 2005 Aggie-Eagle Classic, and was the first time the two historically black colleges met as opponents in the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-AA.
N.C. Central is in its first season as an independent at that level after moving up from Division II, while A&T is a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The Eagles also have expressed interest in joining the MEAC, the league they helped found in the 1970s. They left the conference when it was reclassified into Division I.
But league officials have been mum on expansion, and commissioner Dennis Thomas declined to say if the fight would have any effect on its possible re-entry into the conference, saying only that "North Carolina Central is an outstanding academic institution, and they have an excellent athletic program."
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