OGDEN, UTAH (Sept. 15, 2010) -The Big Sky Conference has publicly reprimanded and suspended Northern Colorado football player Brandon Owens for fighting, league commissioner Doug Fullerton announced Wednesday.

Owens, a junior cornerback from Bakersfield, Calif., will be suspended for the first half of Northern Colorado’s game on Saturday, Sept. 18, against Idaho State in Greeley, CO.  Owens threw a punch at a Weber State player during the third overtime of the Bears’ 50-47 loss to the Wildcats on Sept. 11 in Ogden, Utah.

Owens was not penalized during the game, but a videotape review of Saturday’s game revealed the punch. “The conference reserves the right to take action in cases where a flagrant act takes place on the field,’’ Fullerton said.

The 2009-10 NCAA rule book defines fighting as “any attempt by a player, coach or squad member in uniform to strike an opponent in a combative manner unrelated to football. Such acts include, but are not limited to: an attempt to strike an opponent with the arm (s), hand (s), leg (s) or foot (feet), whether or not there is contact.”