Snowball.JPG

Oregon football player Pharaoh Brown, center, dumps a tub load of snow on fellow student Charley Gibson during a snow battle involving hundreds of students on campus Friday.

(The Register-Guard)

UPDATE:

At 3:50 p.m., UO issued a statement on the matter, including a quote from the suspended player. That's added to the story below.

EUGENE -- Oregon starting tight end Pharaoh Brown has been suspended for the Alamo Bowl for his role in a viral video that showed University of Oregon students -- including several football players -- pelting cars and drivers with snowballs Friday, two university sources said.

Oregon's athletic department later confirmed the suspension.

The suspension was made by coach Mark Helfrich on Sunday after the coach spoke with drivers involved and apologized on behalf of his team, each source said. He also set up a meeting for players and a driver caught on video to meet in person.

Other unidentified players present in the video have not been suspended for the bowl game but have been disciplined internally by the UO football team, the second source said. The source left open the possibility that others could face discipline.

No. 10 Oregon (10-2) faces Texas (8-4) in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 30 in San Antonio. The university is holding final exams this week and the team does not practice again until Friday. Helfrich left Eugene for recruiting on Sunday evening, and announced through a

that night that "disciplinary actions have begun."

This discipline from the athletic department does not include whatever punishment the university could deliver from its own investigation that was announced Saturday evening.

“I was one of the many UO students involved in the snowball fight on Friday and my actions escalated to an inappropriate level and for that, I sincerely apologize," Brown said in a statement released Monday afternoon. "We never should have engaged innocent people and I deeply regret my actions and will accept the consequences.”

Two drivers caught in the snowball fight said over the weekend

. Krysten Mayfair was one of those drivers, and is an administrator for the university's College of Arts and Sciences.

"I believe the punishment might have been too severe given other non-athletes won't face the same kind of punishment, but I trust that coach Helfrich is doing what he thinks is best for his team," Mayfair said in an interview Monday.

The event was organized by football players via Twitter on Friday morning when Eugene was blanketed in snow. Two impromptu fights resulted, with the other at the university's recreation fields behind Hayward Field involving more than 100 students

.

Brown, a 6-foot-6 sophomore from Lyndhurst, Ohio, has 10 catches in nine games for 123 yards and two touchdowns this season. He could be replaced by either freshman Johnny Mundt or redshirt freshman Evan Baylis.

The suspension is the second of an Oregon tight end this season, after Colt Lyerla did not travel to UO's victory against Colorado in October. Lyerla then left the team the next day. Though Brown and Mundt initially absorbed Lyerla's role, Baylis has improved drastically, his position coach said before the Civil War.

In late November, Tom Osborne said Baylis "has improved more than anyone in our offense the last five, six weeks. The lightbulb's gone on with him and he's played very well with us."

-- Andrew Greif,