COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Authorities say no major problems were reported at Mirror Lake on the Ohio State University campus as students jumped in for the official version of a tradition ahead of the Buckeyes’ rivalry football game with Michigan.
Some students had stormed a surrounding fence Monday night and plunged in a day ahead of the traditional jump in defiance of the school’s efforts to regulate it. The Columbus Dispatch reports Ohio State distributed more than 13,500 wristbands for students to participate in the official jump Tuesday night, but only about 700 gathered for it.
Ohio State had said the wristband requirement and other restrictions were meant to protect students. Many complained, and some organized the preemptive flash-mob jump on social media. A Franklin County sheriff’s deputy says authorities decided to remove blockades after people knocked down some of the fence and ran through caution tape during the Monday event.