When the Auburn men’s basketball team visits Vanderbilt tonight, the matchup will pit the nation’s top-ranked team against the most-penalized team for field and court storming this school year.
In just the past four months, the Southeastern Conference has levied $850,000 in fines against Vanderbilt. The penalties are part of a combined $2.6 million in fines the SEC has levied against nine of its 16 member schools because fans stormed in celebration after football and men’s basketball victories before visiting teams had left the field or court.
The Vanderbilt tab is for three cases — $100,000 for a football field storm in October and $750,000 for two men’s basketball court storms in January — prompting the school to adopt a new policy that allows postgame celebrations on the court but only after a one-minute delay at the end of a game.
“If we’re fortunate enough to win, we need a new way to celebrate,” first-year head men’s basketball coach Mark Byington said in a video announcement sent to students Friday.
The school says the new approach for men’s and women’s basketball games would let fans enjoy a big win while giving players, coaches and officials time to safely leave the court. It also could reduce the chance of additional SEC fines — money that within conference play goes to the opposing school.
Vanderbilt’s new policy took effect before the men’s team defeated unranked Texas on Saturday, and fans did not storm the court. It could be put to the test tonight (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network) as Auburn (21-2, 9-1 SEC), No. 1 in the AP Top 25 and No. 2 in the Coaches Poll, visits the unranked Commodores (17-6, 5-5 SEC), who have won four straight games at home. Fans stormed the Memorial Gymnasium court after a men’s basketball win against Tennessee on Jan. 18 and again Jan. 25 after their team defeated Kentucky — the first time Vanderbilt has beaten Tennessee and Kentucky in the same season when both were ranked in the top 10.
It’s been a special year for the Nashville school’s teams — its first winning football season and bowl victory since 2013, a 12-1 home record in men’s basketball and first top-25 ranking in a decade, and a women’s basketball team that cracked the AP Top 25 in late January for its first ranking in more than a decade before dropping out this week. ESPN requested interviews with Vanderbilt’s football and men’s basketball coaches, facilities officials, athletic director and chancellor before the school’s unveiling of its new plan. The university declined the requests.
Aiden Rutman, a senior and sports editor of the Vanderbilt Hustler school newspaper, told ESPN that the change is effectively the university “legalizing court storming.”
“I feel like it’s very creatively smart for them to have found a way to let people storm the court and go celebrate without actually getting in trouble with the SEC and having to pay that fine,” Rutman said. He said that the response to the new rule in his social circles and online platforms was positive and that he expects the promise of approved access after a minute should be enough to keep fans off the court for that long.
“If students aren’t willing to wait that minute, then they’re not real fans of the program,” Rutman said, “because I think that to cost the school $500,000 to storm the court immediately versus waiting that minute is a problem.”
According to the SEC’s “Access to Competition Area” policy under which the Commodores have been fined, “An institution may adopt a policy allowing spectators to access the competition area once all visiting team personnel and game officials have safely exited the field and thereby avoid application of these penalties.”
Concerns about court storming peaked nationally last season after collisions with basketball stars Caitlin Clark of Iowa and Kyle Filipowski of Duke during celebratory postgame storms at Ohio State and Wake Forest. In the wake of those incidents, Duke men’s coach Jon Scheyer, his five-time national champion predecessor Mike Krzyzewski, Wake’s Steve Forbes and Bill Self of Kansas, among others, called for a national ban on storming and for zero tolerance policies.
ESPN contacted all 32 Division I basketball conferences last year, and 11 said that under their rules they could impose fines on member schools in certain cases of court or field storms. Since then, despite widespread discussions among athletic officials about what can be done to stop storms, no conference has announced significant new measures to try to curb them. The NCAA says that for regular-season games, the matter remains up to the conferences to manage — which means rules and policies differ around the country.
Saturday, as soon as Clemson defeated second-ranked Duke, fans at Littlejohn Coliseum stormed the court in a scene reminiscent of last year’s storm at Wake Forest when Filipowski was left hobbled. Contacted Monday by ESPN, a Clemson spokesman said there were no injuries and no arrests, detainments or disciplinary measures from Clemson or the police against anybody in the storm. The spokesman also said the school had no statement about what happened Saturday.
Asked about the Clemson storm during a news conference Monday, Scheyer said game officials tried to stop it, but that it still posed a challenge to get his team off the court safely. “That wasn’t a safe environment, no question about it,” Scheyer said. “I mean, I was put in a position where I was shielding our guys from people running up and getting in their face, so I don’t think we want something to happen and then have to make a decision to do something.”
The storm at Clemson did serve as a vivid reminder that the issue has not gone away — in the ACC, which doesn’t levy fines, or in the SEC, which does.
“The players, the coaches, the officials belong on the court or on the floor, and the fans belong in the stands — and I can’t be any more direct than that,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told ESPN last week.
Sankey said that internal discussions of how to best handle storming are ongoing and that any expectation of a home-court storm needs to stop.
“Our players deserve to be respected, both the home and the visiting teams,” Sankey said. “They deserve to be allowed to congratulate each other, say hello to friends and exit, that’s the basis, and do that uninterrupted and without being insulted directly in their face or being approached by people whose motives they don’t know or understand as part of this postgame field rushing or court storming.”
What about fines or forfeits?
The SEC’s policy states it may assess fines “for any field or court rush that occurs when the visiting team and/or game officials are still on the playing surface.” Additionally: “In all sports, institutions shall limit access to the competition area to participating student-athletes, coaches, officials, support personnel, and properly credentialed or authorized individuals at all times.”
After establishing penalties in 2004, the conference increased the amounts in 2015 and again in 2023. In 20 years through the 2023-24 season, the SEC had imposed $3.9 million in total assessments. SEC schools have been fined for a combined 11 field and court storms so far in 2024-25, compared with five in all of 2023-24.
The SEC’s fine structure — far more severe than any other conference — is $100,000 for a first incident, $250,000 for a second, and $500,000 for a third and subsequent occurrences. When storms occur for nonconference games, the penalty amount is deducted from SEC payouts to the home school and redirected to the conference’s postgraduate scholarship fund. For conference games, the SEC redirects the money to the visiting school, which can spend it at its discretion. That means teams like Tennessee and Kentucky get the money when Vanderbilt fans storm the court.
Alabama’s football team was the visitor for three field storms this season and received $400,000 — $100,000 from Vanderbilt, $100,000 from Tennessee and $200,000 from Oklahoma ($100,000 for the field storm and another $100,000 for rushing the field before time expired). Athletic director Greg Byrne said that regardless of such payouts, his focus is on stopping storming.
“I don’t think from a financial penalty standpoint you can really put anything into place that would curtail it,” Byrne said. “I think it has to be other steps, other actions.”
Beyond making announcements asking fans to “stay in your seats after the game,” college athletic officials have discussed a variety of ideas to try to curb storms, including limiting alcohol sales or imposing even higher fine amounts.
Byrne has said forfeits seemed to be the most effective answer — a stance he reiterated last week to ESPN.
“I truly believe it — if we said that the home team, if they storm the field or the court, they’re going to lose that game right then and there, that will stop it,” Byrne said.
“I think that’s a tough proposition,” Sankey said. “I do think there’s more than Greg in this league who feel that way, though.”
Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl told ESPN last week that he understands why Byrne takes the issue seriously and wants to stop storms for the safety of athletes and all participants at an event.
“I would hate to see that the efforts of the student-athletes could somehow be taken away because of the decisions made by the participants in the court storming,” Pearl said. “I love the passion of court storming of college basketball — it’s all about the students and these incredible environments. I think there’s a better way of doing it, though.”
Pearl said there could be ways to either cordon off a visiting team or give it time to get off the floor immediately to avoid being trampled. For Auburn home basketball games, instead of the fans descending toward the court and swarming the players, Pearl said his Tigers often go to the fans.
“As soon as the game is over and we shake hands with our opponent, we circle up in a corner of the court,” he said, “and then a lot of times our guys will kind of walk around the edges of the court, both at home and even on the road, and high-five our fans and wave to them and thank them for their support.”
Byrne, who’s been an athletic administrator at six universities for more than 30 years, said a similar practice happens at Alabama.
“Our team goes to the students after every win, and so our students are sitting there waiting,” he said. “I do think that’s something at least worth trying, it’s saying, ‘OK, students, the team’s going to come celebrate with you in the stands after a big win.'”
Brandon Allen, director of research at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security, said last week before Vanderbilt established its new policy that he doesn’t think spectators are inclined to heed requests to remain in the stands after a big win.
“Can the crowd come and celebrate with the players after the fact?” Allen said. “I would like to say yes. In order to do that, I think there needs to be a cultural change and communication.”
Allen advocates for a four- or five-minute delay before fans are welcomed onto the court for postgame celebrations and that fines go toward enhanced security. Another option, he said, could be to move student sections to areas with fewer people in their path during a storm.
And he said measures to hold individual stormers accountable could be worthwhile, rather than penalizing only the teams: “It’s not their fault, right? They can’t control fans from storming the court.”
He also said there isn’t efficacy in a zero tolerance policy — things like banning stormers from buying tickets, arrests or limiting campus access — as it would take away from the atmosphere, require more staff and lead to potential legal ramifications.
“I know the security realm world is looking at it and looking at how to mitigate it and what are some best practices they can put in place to ensure it doesn’t happen,” Allen said. “But from a spectator’s point of view, I don’t know of any universities doing anything to deter it.”
Plans in place
The same day as the Jan. 21, 2024, Caitlin Clark collision in Columbus, Ohio, a fan in New Orleans put his hand on the back of Memphis player David Jones as Tulane fans stormed the court. Jones wasn’t injured, and Tulane apologized and condemned the incident. An American Athletic Conference spokesperson told ESPN that there were discussions after that incident and that a best-practices guide was developed and shared with the member institutions to help end-of-game plans.
“In the SEC, we have put a policy in that every school has to have a field-storming plan,” Byrne said. “And so we’ve done that; we’ve executed that after a couple games just as a trial to say, ‘OK, if it ever came to that point, have we operated this?’ And we’ve done so.”
Despite plans, the fan frenzy can pose a challenge for home schools and their security teams, often seen gathering along a field or court sideline preparing to try to hold back a throng of students, many of whom can be seen with their phones out taking video of the mayhem.
“A lot of people want to make their TikTok videos in that moment,” Sankey said. “We’ve had visiting players approached and insulted pretty aggressively, so somebody can make a video recording. Those aren’t healthy realities.”
Sankey also said he thinks telecasters contribute to the phenomenon.
“I’ve had conversations with folks at ESPN. It would be helpful if our media partners didn’t glorify the moment repeatedly,” Sankey said. “We’ve had candid conversations about that. That certainly hasn’t stopped our media partners from showing those moments.”
ESPN declined to comment.
Byrne said that he’s not optimistic that forfeits will be adopted but that he would welcome all ideas that could make a difference, because the status quo is unacceptable.
“It’s hard to think you can have enough security to hold back thousands of people that want to get on the field,” Byrne said. “You can have a show a force of it, but at the end of the day, when those folks come and get on the field, it’s hard to push ’em back. That’s why you have to, I believe, stop the original motion of getting them to go to the field.
“People say it’s just a celebration. It is a celebration, but it’s not a safe one.”
Said Sankey: “What’s disappointing to me is there are injuries that have taken place, there are players that have been run into in an incredibly aggressive manner. There are fans who are injured jumping over the wall of a stadium or rushing into a crowd, and we’re also concerned about the impact of the crowd, a crush of people.”
Sacramento State senior associate athletic director Carl Reed, who as a Stanford athletic official in 2004 dealt with the fallout from a furious court storm, said institutions should speak with student groups and leaders and talk through the potential outcomes if they do rush the court.
“While spontaneous celebration around an upset victory is great for the sport and the university,” Reed said, “it’s just a matter of time before we have a tragic outcome to court or field rushing.”
Students at Vandy
A full student section at Memorial Gymnasium booed Jan. 25 when a message appeared on the arena’s video screen in the final moments of Vanderbilt’s 74-69 upset of Kentucky. The message: “Refrain from entering the court following the game.” And there was a public address announcement to the same effect.
The university already had incurred $350,000 in fines this academic year. Toward the end of the Commodores’ win, athletic director Candice Storey Lee pressed her hands together as she pleaded for students to refrain from rushing the court, according to reporter Grace Hall of the student paper.
“Let us use the money for NIL to make a great team next year,” Lee said, according to Hall’s post on X.
As the final buzzer sounded, some students hesitated to hoist themselves onto the gym’s elevated court after hearing Lee’s plea, but others ignored the message. Within seconds, a sea of fans sporting black and gold was bouncing on the hardwood. The cost to the school? $500,000.
Some fans argue that you can’t put a price tag on a winning team, and several Vanderbilt fans told ESPN before Friday’s unveiling of the new celebration policy that they expected a storm would happen if the Commodores upset Auburn.
“That money has to be worth it,” said lifelong Vanderbilt fan Daniel Benz, 35. “The people who are watching this change [in football and basketball fortunes] happen, I feel like it’s going to bring more fans or [bring] fans back.”
Senior Justin Badt said the fines aren’t a deterrent for students because they aren’t the ones paying up.
“I understand why it may prompt the university to put in additional measures to keep students from storming the court,” Badt said, “but I’d say it doesn’t deter the students themselves.”
The celebration after the Tennessee game was the first court storm at Vanderbilt since beating the Volunteers two years ago.
Rutman said there’s “not a chance” most students are aware that the money is sent to the opposing team when an SEC home team is fined for a storm. He said if students did know, they might put more care into their storming decisions.
“No one who’s a big Vanderbilt fan wants to see that money go to the Volunteers,” he said. “It’s just a fact.”
Vanderbilt money — $100,000 to be precise — also went to Alabama, after fans celebrated the Commodores’ 40-35 triumph over the Crimson Tide on Oct. 5 by storming the field at FirstBank Stadium, tearing down a goalpost and marching 3 miles through downtown Nashville to launch it into the Cumberland River.
In addition to the Commodores’ first football victory ever over a top-five team (they were 0-60) and first in 40 years over the visitors from Tuscaloosa on the field — Vandy was awarded a forfeit win for a 1993 game because the NCAA imposed sanctions on Alabama in 1995 — fans were stoked by a video clip of former Alabama coach Nick Saban, a six-time national champion there, saying Vanderbilt is “the only place in the SEC that’s not hard to play at.”
“No one thought they could or would ever have an opportunity to be competitive against the No. 1 team, much less Alabama,” Benz said.
Vanderbilt alumnus Rob Wynkoop told ESPN he saw fans “negotiating” with security late in the game, begging to be allowed on the field for a postgame celebration, telling guards “this is super important” and “you should let us pass and we’ll go orderly.”
When the game ended and some fans had pushed onto the field, Wynkoop said, “security was just like, ‘Whatever.’ They knew they were overcome by the crowd.”
As for paying a fine, Vandy’s Byington said after the Kentucky storm: “There’s big-picture things I wanted to happen around here, and at one point I want to be where we’re not surprised, that we don’t feel like the underdog in these games, and we’re going into them knowing that our program is good and we expect to win. We’re not there yet. So let the fans enjoy it. We’ve got to start a GoFundMe page or something to pay fines. We’ll figure it out.”
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