Ohio State Suspends SAE After Video Shows Two Men on Fire; Hazing Probe Is Open, Cause Is Not

Ohio State University has placed its Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter on interim suspension after a video circulated of two young men whose clothing was on fire during an outdoor gathering on November 7, 2026, near the Columbus campus. University spokesperson Benjamin Johnson called the episode “extremely concerning” and said the individuals involved are receiving medical care. The university referred the matter to university police and Columbus police. The city’s fire arson unit is also involved. No charges have been announced.

Documented: CNN, NBC News, the Associated Press, the Columbus Dispatch, and The Guardian independently reported the suspension and the same basic sequence in the video. Filmed in the 1900 block of Indianola Avenue — a street of Greek houses that includes the SAE chapter house — the clip begins with a man in gray sweatpants already burning. A bystander struggles to deploy a fire extinguisher. The man gets up and collides with or tackles a second man in a matching outfit; that man’s clothing also catches fire. Both roll on the ground and strip burning clothes while some onlookers step in. A crowd, many in Ohio State colors on a day the Buckeyes hosted Oregon, stands around the scene. Several accounts describe laughter and cheering before the tone shifts. No one called 911 on Saturday. Police were alerted the next evening, after the video was already circulating.

A preliminary Columbus police report, obtained by the Dispatch and described by CNN, The Independent, and CBS News, lists the case as a hazing investigation. It records that two Ohio State students suffered second- and third-degree burns described as moderate. They were taken to a hospital in a private vehicle and were reported in stable condition. The chapter president gave a statement to police. The university has not publicly established how tightly the gathering was tied to the chapter; the interim suspension freezes SAE’s status as a registered student organization while that link is examined.

Claimed, not established: A student who said she received the clip in a sorority group chat — and who was not at the scene — told dispatchers that pledges had been set on fire with gasoline and that people stood around and laughed. That allegation is in released 911 audio. It is a lead, not a finding. Authorities have not confirmed an accelerant, a cause, or that the men were pledges. National SAE CEO Steve Mitchell said conduct that violates the fraternity’s standards has no place in the organization and that the fraternity will act on the investigation’s findings.

What the video does not settle is the question the suspension was built to hold open: accident, a stunt that escaped control, or conduct tied to membership. Ohio’s Collin’s Law, signed in 2021 after the hazing death of Ohio University student Collin Wiant, defines hazing to include acts that create a substantial risk of physical harm in connection with initiation or continued membership, and can elevate serious cases to a felony. SAE’s Ohio State chapter does not appear on the university’s public hazing-violation list for the last five years. University records do show earlier sanctions — a two-year loss of recognition in 2001, probation in 2017 after findings that included hazing and alcohol, and further alcohol-related discipline in 2019.

The accountability problem the footage actually documents is narrower, and harder to suspend away. A crowd large enough to film the burns did not produce an emergency call until the recording itself became the evidence. Interim suspension pauses the chapter. It does not identify who started the fire, who was obligated to stop it, or whether membership pressure was involved.

Speculated: that the matching outfits, the football-Saturday timing, or the delayed report prove an organized ritual. Those are inferences. They are not findings.