It’s hard to forget the sight of 100,000+ people barreling down to a football field through mass amounts of more fans looking to accomplish the same task.
In fact, it looks something like this.
When No. 6 Tennessee defeated No. 3 Alabama in Knoxville last season, especially with a win behind a last-second field goal attempt in front of the student section, there was absolutely no chance that anyone was going to keep the students off the field that October night in Knoxville. And as soon as the students went, it was a sure-fire bet that the other corners of the stadium were going to flip and fly over the barricade onto the field, too. And boy, did they.
Memories rush to my head of speaking with a security worker in the endzone just seconds before the kick. The security worker knew it, the students knew it, and I couldn’t help but know it as the situation was reaching a fever pitch: the students were going to pour onto the field and the security was going to help them do so. No one was going to be able to stop it.
Well, the SEC is reportedly working hard to stop it. Despite SEC policies in place that present SEC programs with increasing fines as a consequence of storming the field/court, the SEC is reportedly looking to find a new solution.
According to a report from Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde on Monday, the Southeastern Conference’s event safety group is working to figure out solutions, or consequences, for programs that allow fans to rush the field.
One proposal that Forde wrote about on Monday was that a program guilty of rushing the field would potentially lose a home game as a consequence for doing so. The SEC currently gives out fines up to six digits for rushing the field but seems to be looking for something more impactful with the SEC program’s ability to just simply pay the fine.
Heck, in Tennessee’s case, the Vols needed to pay for two more field goal posts for a game in Neyland Stadium seven days later in addition to the fine.
Still, according to Forde, the idea of removing a home game from a program is “on the table as a possible sanction as the SEC searches for a stronger deterrent to field storming than six-figure fines.”
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The exact example that Forde used in his article for Sports Illustrated was that Auburn could knock off Georgia and storm the field this September, but only at risk of losing their 2025 home game with Georgia and having that game then be moved to Athens (a.k.a. the field of the opposing team).
If Tennessee and Alabama were being used in that example instead, it would look like Tennessee having the 2024 game in Knoxville taken away to instead play three straight years (2023, 2024, 2025) in Tuscaloosa.
On the flip side of this hypothetical situation, though, Tennessee would possibly be looking at three straight home games against South Carolina after the Gamecocks’ field-storming consequences from this past November.
According to Forde’s article, “Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne, Georgia AD Josh Brooks and Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart” are the three individuals headlining the event safety group that was put together by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey last fall.
Storming the field in college football has become a memorable aspect of the game and has certainly been hyped up to be a big deal in the last stretch of seasons as the age of social media continues to grow. While the field rush isn’t a new concept, it’s not just about storming the field anymore – it’s about storming the field while taking pictures and videos to then put up on social media.
Tennessee stormed the field and tore down the goalposts after beating Alabama in Knoxville. The LSU Tigers stormed the field after taking down Alabama in Baton Rouge. The South Carolina Gamecocks stormed the field after defeating Tennessee in Columbia this past season. And those are only examples from Southeastern Conference teams, too.
While the end result of the field storming can be incredible for any different number of reasons – the visual on television, the publicity for your school and your program, the experience of doing it yourself – there can be a dangerous side to it as well.
As Alabama was exiting the field and Tennessee fans were simultaneously rushing the field this past season, Crimson Tide wide receiver Jermaine Burton was involved in a bad situation as video evidence showed him making contact with a female Tennessee student in the endzone. The video of the incident from Oct. 18, 2022, has over 1.5 million views on Twitter.
Jermaine Burton smacking a girl in the head after the game pic.twitter.com/6DeqPYJ5WK
— Legends of Lindsey Nelson (@VolCreatures) October 18, 2022
Alabama head coach Nick Saban released a statement on the following Wednesday morning in which he stated: “We are aware of the situation with Jermaine Burton as he was exiting the field Saturday. We are currently working to gather more information.”
Saban then expanded his thoughts on storming the field in more detail later that day on the SEC Coaches teleconference phone call.
“It’s a difficult situation,” Saban said about the potential danger of storming the field. “It’s a difficult situation for the league, it’s a difficult situation for all of us that are in this situation. We certainly don’t condone any mistreatment of anybody, whether they should or shouldn’t be there. I think you’ve got to have respect for other people. But, at the same time, it’s a difficult situation for all of us.”
The safety of players, coaches, and fans does seem to be a driving force in this decision, though.
“Guaranteeing safe passage off the field likely will mean a bigger security presence around the visiting bench area,” Forde wrote for SI. “It could mean a quickly cordoned-off walkway to the exit tunnel. In basketball, a pregame agreement to call off the customary postgame handshake line when a court storm is imminent could be enacted”
As the SEC’s event safety group continues to work through different proposals and ideas, Forde says that the approved changes “could” come in time for the 2023-2024 athletic year.
“Proposals for a new policy to deal with fans rushing the field or court are expected to be presented to the league’s full roster of athletic directors soon for discussion,” Forde wrote. “From there, options for a revamped policy are likely to be advanced to the conference’s presidents and chancellors at SEC spring meetings May 30 to June 2 in Destin, Fla. Approved changes could be implemented for the 2023–24 athletic year.”
