ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh says it was an "egregious" hit that injured Wilton Speight and that the facilities at Purdue weren't sufficient to handle the Wolverines quarterback's injury.
"If I had a stronger word to use, I would use it," Harbaugh said Monday afternoon. "With all the emphasis on protecting defenseless players, it appeared that the player knew what he was doing. He targeted the head. [Speight] was on the ground, and he accelerated."
Speight left Saturday's win over the Boilermakers after he was sacked in the first quarter. After Speight took a hit from Boilermakers sophomore linebacker Markus Bailey, junior defensive tackle Eddie Wilson hit Speight in the head and neck area as he fell to the ground.
Harbaugh said he was surprised that the play wasn't flagged as a targeting personal foul. The coach said he planned to contact the Big Ten offices to lodge a complaint about the lack of a penalty.
He also said he wants Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and other head coaches to establish a better standard for visiting team facilities inside stadiums around the conference to make sure that player safety was put above "gamesmanship."
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, at his news conference in Columbus on Monday, said his team has encountered "a couple" problems with substandard dressing rooms on the road. And he agreed the Big Ten needs some locker room reform.
"And I've shared that with our athletic director, and the commissioner should handle that," Meyer said. "In my very strong opinion, that should not be allowed."
A Big Ten spokesman released a statement on the matter.
"Big Ten member institutions have direct access to conference governance and policy development, so if any institutions have game management procedures that warrant discussion at the conference level -- including those related to student welfare, health and safety, film exchange, media services or any other game-related procedures -- there are processes and opportunities to do so. While current conference policy does not set minimum specifications for team locker rooms, most, if not all, of our sports and game management procedures come from recommendations based on the experience of our schools and are supported by a vote of the majority of our members."
Purdue also released a statement Monday after Harbaugh's comments.
"Purdue regards the welfare of all student-athletes as its No. 1 priority. We would fully support a conversation regarding a conference-wide set of guidelines for visiting football team accommodations because we have experienced less-than-ideal conditions on the road. There is no place for gamesmanship when it comes to player care and safety.
"The after-the-fact concerns expressed by Michigan are somewhat surprising because a member of its football staff conducted a walk-thru of our facilities with our athletics department staff at Ross-Ade Stadium on July 18.
"Furthermore, to help teams prepare in advance, our visiting team manual highlights in bold type 'there is no air conditioning in the (visiting) locker room,' with accompanying Purdue Athletics staff contact information about how to request preferred temporary accommodations. We did not receive any such request.
"Basic X-ray is available within our athletic footprint and more-sophisticated capabilities are located two blocks away, similar to the arrangements at many other schools. Our sports medicine staff members, in fact, have received numerous compliments from their Michigan counterparts regarding the care they received at Purdue."
Speight was taken to a nearby health center after the injury for X-rays because the coach said Ross-Ade Stadium's medical facilities weren't sufficient to address the issue on site.
"I wish I would've taken a picture of the actual table that is given to the visitors to put players on when they're injured," Harbaugh said. "It looked like it was from the '20s. It's ripped. It's just not good. I think that's a pattern in the Big Ten."
After three seasons of visiting other Big Ten stadiums, Harbaugh said he felt that some teams made conscious efforts to provide lousy accommodations to give the home team an advantage on the field. He said the Big Ten has been worse in this regard than his experience in the Pac-12 and defensive coordinator Don Brown's experience in the ACC. He called Purdue's locker room unsanitary and "unsportsmanlike."
"It's 2017," Harbaugh said. "There have been advancements, and our stadiums need to reflect that. Visiting locker rooms need to reflect that. Gamesmanship should cease at the line of health and safety for the players."
On Tuesday, Harbaugh said that the Big Ten athletic directors plan to address locker room issues at a previously scheduled meeting in October.
Michigan gave its players an option to sit on the team bus prior to kickoff at Purdue on an unseasonably warm Saturday because the bus, unlike their locker room, had air conditioning.
"It was such a tight, cramped environment," Harbaugh said. "You have to do open the doors to get some kind of ventilation going in a very small area. People are walking by and watching you dress. The number of urinals or bathrooms for the players and staff, I think there were two. There's not even a private door around [the bathroom area]."
Harbaugh said he hopes his program can help spearhead an initiative to make sure that Big Ten teams are doing a better job of taking care of their guests. Harbaugh and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel discussed what upgrades their stadium needed this weekend to try to make sure Michigan could "lead the way" in those efforts.
"What can we do to make sure that ours is as good as well and come up with a whole protocol of what the standard should look like and hope all the teams follow it, request that they do," Harbaugh said. "Together we should be able to do this.
"I urge my fellow coaches to weigh in as well and get their thoughts. I think it's something we can all agree on."
Harbaugh said he hoped that Delany would address the issue immediately.
Speight would be out if the Wolverines had a game this weekend, Harbaugh said. No. 7 Michigan has a bye, but it's not clear when Speight will be healthy enough to return.
"If we were playing a game this week, he wouldn't be able to play," Harbaugh said. "We'll assess it as we go."
Harbaugh said after the game that Speight had a "soft tissue injury" and declined to go into further detail Monday.
Fifth-year senior John O'Korn replaced Speight and led Michigan to a 28-10 victory. He completed 18 of 26 pass attempts for 270 yards and one touchdown.
ESPN's Adam Rittenberg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.