Ohio State safety plans in place for playoff game

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — History will be made in Columbus on Saturday when Ohio Stadium hosts its first College Football Playoff game, and leaders with the Ohio State University Police Division (OSUPD) said they are ready.  

"We’re really excited,” OSUPD Chief Dennis Jeffrey said. “This is obviously a first for us so we’re really excited and we welcome Tennessee fans, we want everyone to have a great time, so hopefully it's a great outcome for the Buckeyes." 

As is the case with other games at Ohio Stadium, OSUPD will be working with other central Ohio law enforcement agencies. OSUPD is no stranger to working big games.  

Much of what will take place Saturday is similar to previous games, according to Jeffrey. He said they've made some small changes based on what the College Football Playoff wants. 

"We had a meeting, and they had some certain things they’d like us to do which we’d already been doing many of those and the things they had, we made some slight modifications to make sure we adhere to kind of the standards they want," Jeffrey said. 

Saturday's game starts at 8 p.m. Jeffrey said lighting will be added to the surrounding area.  

"Obviously we’re having people leaving the stadium much later, so that impacts traffic," Jeffrey said.  

He urged fans to be patient as sometimes traffic can move slower after night games. He also asked fans of both teams to be on their best behavior. 

"We really want to have a safe environment, enjoyable one, so we want obviously everyone to have a great time but also adhere to good sportsmanship and we always make that part of our message to our fans, so we would ask Tennessee fans to utilize that same message," Jeffrey said.  

He also addressed some discussion online about Tennessee fans planning to throw goalposts in the Olentangy River if the Volunteers win.  

"We have a good plan in place to kind of hopefully not have that happen,” he said. “We’ve probably seen that before, it's something similar we do to some games anyway, so we just made some slight modifications, but we’re pretty confident we can prevent that," he said. "We certainly talk about those things and figure what would happen, try to plan accordingly. But I know sometimes you have to, like, let social media, let it do its thing, but yes, we’ve seen those things and we’re planning for those."