Pat Forde reports today that one of the considerations being floated among SEC ADs is the loss of a future home game if fans storm the football field.
https://www.si.com/college/2023/04/24/sec-storming-the-field-punishments
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I suppose teams will need the governor to call out the National Guard to ring the stadium (to prevent fans from storming). From my vantage point, trying to stop fans is more dangerous than allowing them to storm the field.
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I don’t think anyone is going to stop them if they want to storm. I think losing the rights to a home game is a strong deterrent, though.
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Refresh my memory—what is the harm in having twenty thousand fans standing around on the field? Kill turf? Damage drainage? I’m wondering why threatening an entire community in loss of mega millions because fans stood on the field?
The potential harm is an altercation between a player/coach and a fan (like Jermaine Burton at Tennessee last year), or even worse something like what happened at Wisconsin 30 years ago.
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It was interesting watching the fans at Wrexham in Wales storm the field Saturday after that soccer club won its league title and promotion to the next league. Like us at the Texas game two years ago, they knew it was coming, there was no way to stop it, and they just tried to keep it orderly. Didn’t tear down the goals though.
Completely agree with this. Certainly storming the field is not an ideal situation for safety concerns. But trying to control an excited mob of thousands of people by preventing them from surging onto the field is setting the stage for a crushing tragedy.
I’ll just never forget my first games I attended in WMS. I was too young to have a grasp of football but I wrestled on the field after games with other kids for jerseys torn off Razorback players. Great fun! Became a fan at that age, maybe because I rushed the field after games (1950 s).
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The crush to get onto the field is probably worse than the action once on the field.
Why not scale things with penalties like they do now with fines? Instead of $50K, $100K, $250K…15-yard penalty to start their next conference game, 15-yard penalty and loss of a 2nd half timeout in the next conference game for the second offense + 15-yard penalty to start the game the next time you play that opponent, and losing a home game against that opponent the 3rd offense.
Honestly, better sollutions can probably be come up with by including coaches in the conversation. Giving a HC the opportunity to pull their team off the field early for safety purposes. What UA did for Texas two years ago - perfect! A safe passage for the visiting team and officials off of the field. No post-game handshakes if fans enter the field.
Just jack the fines up really high and let the schools figure out how badly they want to keep from getting fined. Taking a home game away seems more than a little too much for me.
Who in the conference gets rewarded with the extra home game? Even with whatever version of the new scheduling, you might not see the team you played that day in a scheduled home game for many years. Why should Ole Miss benefit for what happened in a game against LSU?
And if the field is stormed after a non-conference game, do you force the offending school to play an extra road non-conference game in a future year? I could see HY saying okay-we’ll play in Little Rock and ULM will be the designated home team-and most other schools in the conference could come up with some other way to play a mock road game…
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I am in agreement with this. I like the idea of the penalty for next game or loss of time out etc.
One of the dumbest propositions I have ever seen.
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And that says a lot…. 
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David Ubben says it isn’t going to work. I agree with him.
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Storming the field is potentially very dangerous. People get killed when people storm an area. However, this seems like a bad idea that probably won’t accomplish its goal. Fortunately, storming a field or court is rare.
A better plan would be to arrest offenders. Use cameras to identify them. Announce it well in advance.
Yeah, maybe the offenders could be banished to watch ASU game for a season. For God sakes we don’t need to use up correctional space…we would be paroling offenders or adding more jail space. I guess if the forced banishment to ASU game attendance didn’t the offenders could restrict from calling the Hogs and only allowed to yell with the infamous Code Red Cheer. I suppose greater question would be is the SEC overfunded to make proposal such as this… ?
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I wouldn’t put anyone in jail for it, but a small fine might do the trick.
Direct and likely would serve the purpose.
Maybe lock them in the stadium all night with the ASU Band playing the “Onward Wolves” Fight song or something plus showing repeats ASU of games lost by multiple TDs on the Big Screen.
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A stiff penalty maybe a deterrent, but after a very emotional upset victory over a significant rival, fans probably will still storm the field.