One of the indelible images of the 2022 college football season was a sea of orange-clad fans storming the Neyland Stadium field to celebrate Tennessee’s last-second victory over Alabama.
Video from above, pictures from the ground, even cell phone footage of Vol fans carrying a downed field goal upright out of the stadium so they could throw it in the Tennessee River perfectly encapsulated the passion of the sport.
“What an unbelievable scene,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said after. “Man, what a night for Vol Nation.”
It may never happen again, however, at least if the SEC has its way.
The SEC will consider a new proposal, first reported by Sports Illustrated, at upcoming league meetings designed to put an end to field — and court — storming for good.
The concern for the league, and its athletic directors, is the safety of players, coaches, officials and even the fans themselves. A storming may look (or actually be) fun but a million things can go wrong, from injuries to altercations. A series of fines for offending schools — up to $250,000 — has done little to curtail the tradition.
A new proposal calls for a school that has its fans storm the field after a victory against a certain opponent to be stripped of the next home game against that same opponent.
In other words, if the rule had been in place last year, then the next time Alabama was scheduled to visit Knoxville (2024), the game would instead be played in Tuscaloosa. The loss of not just the immense revenue of a home game, but the competitive advantage of playing on your campus, should, it is believed, make fans stay in their seats to celebrate.
“The only way to stop the fans is to stop them from even considering it,” one SEC athletic director said. “We don’t have enough police or security to prevent it once they get moving.”
If you think the loss of a home game is a drastic punishment — and it is — another proposal out there calls for the immediate forfeiture of the game just played if fans run on the field. In that case, the Vol celebration would have actually resulted in Alabama being awarded the victory.
One supporter of the forfeiture plan called it “draconian” but noted it “would stop the practice.”
Definitely, but that appears to be too much at this point.
Would the loss of a home game be enough for fans to police each other, with cooler heads thinking about the long-term interests rather than immediate joy? Probably.
There is a counter argument that this will only impact historically less successful programs — Alabama fans aren’t storming the field for beating, say, Vanderbilt. And that’s true, to a point.
Except, just last season, LSU fans stormed the Tiger Stadium field after defeating Alabama and it’s not like LSU is a weakling. Just three weeks later, Texas A&M fans stormed Kyle Field after beating LSU.
So around it goes.
This is a sound idea to end the situation. The SEC would have to set some standard where a school wouldn’t get punished if just a handful of fans rushed the playing surface. They’d have to consider the possibility of saboteurs from another school masquerading as home fans (this is the SEC, they’ve poisoned rival trees, so anything is possible).
A generation ago stadiums often had fencing that separated the stands from the playing surface. Then in 1993, a surge of Wisconsin fans celebrating a victory over Michigan led to hundreds being crushed together. Over 60 were injured, including three critically. Down went the fences.
In most places, to get on the field now requires scaling a small wall and jumping down to the playing surface. Presumably there are some ankle twists, but for the most part they get on the field without injury. No one seems to pay any attention to the fines.
The end of the field storm would be unfortunate in some ways. If you’re sitting at home and watching television, it looks cool. For the vast majority of the fans on the field, it’s an unforgettable moment producing unforgettable pictures.
The winning players generally love it.
It only takes one thing to go wrong, though.
Professional sports have essentially ended the practice. When a NFL team wins a playoff game at home, the crowd is no less intense and excited. They just stay put in the stands.
That’s what college administrators want.
“Something has to be done,” said one AD.
This would probably do it.
