South Carolina’s $25,000 Fine for Celebrating = New Rules for Court Storming
The Southeastern Conference fined the University of South Carolina $25,000 for allowing students to storm the basketball court after the Gamecocks beat the #1 team in the nation, the previously undefeated University of Kentucky Wildcats, 68-62 on Tuesday night. The amount of the fine was large because this was the second fine that the school has incurred following a court-storming; the first instance was a 73-61 win over then-#3 Kentucky on February 15th, 2005.
SEC commissioner Mike Slive said that the fines are implemented to ensure “a safe environment for those who participate and attend league events,” which is a nice idea, but is hardly an acceptable measure for a well-deserved court-storming.
I must admit, most games that end up in students and fans storming the court are not deserved. I remember when I was at Villanova and we beat UCLA, who was ranked somewhere around 15 at the time, and we stormed the court. Looking back it seems silly, but Villanova was awful back then. Needless to say, it was really fun, we could celebrate with the players and no one got hurt. If I saw that today, I would argue that it was not a situation where you should have gone on the court. But beating the #1 team in the country when you go into the game with a 11-8 record? Yes, please enjoy the celebration with the players and other students.
So with that out of the way, I propose the following new rules for when students and fans can storm the court:
- If your team is ranked in the Top-10, no court storming will be accepted under any circumstance;
- If your team is ranked in the Top-20, you can only storm the court if you beat the #1 team in the country;
- If your team is in the Top-25, you can storm the court if you beat a team in the Top-3;
- If your team is unranked, but was ranked at some point in the season, you can storm the court if you beat a Top-3 team;
- If your team is unranked and has not been ranked at all this season, you can storm the court if you beat a Top-5 team;
- Schools that can never storm the court: North Carolina, Duke, UCLA, Michigan State, Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, UConn.
There are naturally celebrations that can be addressed on a case-by-case basis, but the above ones are the generic rules. If you have a special situation, feel free to comment below and I can provide a ruling.
