NIU Linebacker Jamaal Bass suspended for incident with Toledo's band

Having been in a marching band at the high school and college level, if UT band always exits the field in front of the visitors locker room, then I am surprised that something like this hasn’t happened earlier (I’m referring to someone getting knocked down by accident…what Bass did was reprehensible). A visiting football team does not get to choose where it enters the stadium, that is determined by the home team. The band can choose where it exits the field assuming there is more than one exit. Also, anytime a football team takes the field, home or road, especially in a big game with a national audience, they don’t simply walk onto the field…they run with emotion. This is football after all! Simple logistics will tell you that if you have one large group of padded athletes excitedly taking the field and another equally populated group trying to pass through the same space in a perpendicular direction, accidents (or intentional actions in this case) are bound to happen. If this is commonplace as you indicate, then someone in the UT band should have had the foresight to see something like this happen and either change how or when the band exits or (less likely) request the athletic department to somehow change where a visiting team is supposed to take the field. When I was in marching band, we were told to always yield to both football teams in the event that our paths would cross to prevent situations just like this.