Illini fined for dust-up at Ohio St.

For the second time in 14 months, Illinois has been fined $10,000 and coach Ron Zook reprimanded for a postgame skirmish at midfield.

The Big Ten announced Thursday that Ohio State and Illinois each were fined $10,000 -- and each head coach reprimanded -- for the brief shoving match (and short-lived punch-throwing) after Illinois' 28-21 win at top-ranked Ohio State.

"The conduct of the student-athletes following last week's game violated our sportslike conduct policy, so we have taken the aforementioned actions," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement.

It's the same punishment handed down to Illinois and Michigan State last year after the Illini won 23-20 on Sept. 30 at East Lansing, Mich.

Saturday's incident didn't seem to have the same malice and forethought of the MSU battle, when the Illini planted a school flag at midfield deep enough to have a few inches of turf stuck in the flagpole's hollow base.

But on Saturday, Zook's arrival at midfield was delayed as freshman defensive linemen Jerry Brown and Josh Brent dumped a Gatorade tub's contents on Zook's head. Then he couldn't extricate himself from his headset wires without help.

"By the time I got there (to midfield), it was over," Zook said Sunday. "I yelled at some guys to get out of there, get in the locker room. If we did something wrong, we'll discipline 'em because that's not what we're about."

No players were disciplined by the Big Ten.

"(Assistant head coach) Reggie (Mitchell) told me that (defensive end) Will Davis made a statement that it wasn't a thing where we were going out to be the 'O' (at midfield), " Zook said. "I know it wasn't a big deal and it didn't last very long."