Invasions on SEC fields haven’t stopped, but are getting better – Winston-Salem Journal

If No. 16 LSU beats No. 14 Alabama on an upcoming Saturday night in November and Death Valley fans respond by storming the field again, the Tigers’ athletic program will have to pay up to $500,000 to the Crimson Tide.

The high-stakes rivalry game on Nov. 9 could serve as the latest test of the Southeastern Conference’s on-field encroachment policy, which was revised prior to the previous football season.

The goal was to stop such offenses, but there have been several this season — including at LSU when the Tigers beat Mississippi in overtime on Oct. 12. LSU had to pay $250,000 to the Rebels. If it happens again, LSU will have paid a total of up to $750,000 to competing SEC athletic programs this football season alone.

While LSU coach Brian Kelly worries about safety when fans rush the field, he doesn’t sound too concerned about the fines — even in this NICHOLA era, when schools are spending more on players than ever and would probably prefer not to be ordered to add the athletic budgets of their SEC opponents.

“These types of penalties are likely to be passed through the administration, and I just don’t see it affecting NIL to the point where it has a competitive advantage,” Kelly said.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m advocating, but if you’re winning every week and you’re storming the field, your NIL is going to go up because you’re generating a lot of support yourself,” Kelly added. “I’m not trying to be a sage here about that, because this is a serious matter.”

Kelly — who has experienced three home field invasions and two on the road since coming to LSU in 2022 — doesn’t quibble with the current fine structure.

“They should be as fine as you feel,” Kelly said. “And what you’re trying to do is your due diligence to make sure that there’s increased security so that you can keep people from washing onto the field to the point where there are security risks.”

The fines cover football and basketball combined, and each program starts over every January 1st.

The first offense is $100,000, the second is $250,000, and the maximum is $500,000 for a third or subsequent offense.

LSU had to pay $100,000 for fans who invaded their home court after a men’s basketball win over Kentucky last February. That’s why Ole Miss’ payout this football season was $250,000. But LSU also received $100,000 from Mississippi after losing to the Rebels in Oxford in 2023.

Meanwhile, fans flocked to the field after Alabama’s losses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee this season, and the Crimson Tide is getting $100,000 from each program. Tennessee, meanwhile, is in the red right now because it received $250,000 from Arkansas after losing on the road against the Razorbacks on Oct. 5.

While the invasions haven’t completely stopped, SEC officials are pleased with the efforts member schools have made to get visiting teams off the field safely and quickly as fans pour out of the walls. That, said SEC Associate Commissioner Herb Vincent, is a major goal of the new policy.

“Our schools pay more attention to the safety of players and team personnel when this happens,” Vincent said. “School game management staffs have spent a lot of time developing effective strategies to safely remove opposing teams and personnel from the field.”

Vincent attended Ole Miss’ game at LSU and witnessed security quickly rope off the Rebels’ bench as the game-winning touchdown was scored in overtime, creating a brief buffer that helped Mississippi get to its locker room with limited interference from fan country.

First-year Alabama coach Cullen DeBoer, meanwhile, was pleased there were no significant incidents involving his players at Vanderbilt or Tennessee.

“All it takes is one fan who’s a little over the top and connects with maybe one of our players who’s super emotional, just put it all out on the field and you’ve got a recipe for something that can go wrong,” De Boyer said. “Our guys did well when we were in those situations.”

While Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said the number of field-rushing incidents this season shows the current policies may not be working as intended, Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea took a more nuanced stance.

“Fines are a deterrent and I’m all for that,” Clarke said, noting that he doesn’t believe there’s “any place to engage fans on the field because you’re putting the safety of the opposing team at risk.”

“At these times, there are not many borders and it is very difficult to establish order,” he added.

Yet when reflecting on the aftermath of Vanderbilt’s upset of then-No. 1 Alabama – when the fans stormed the field, removed the goal posts, carried them through Nashville and dumped them in the Cumberland River – he can’t help but feel good about it.

“That moment is very special and something that I will always carry with me and I really don’t want it to go any other way, to be honest,” Clarke said. “We needed this as a community here. This community deserved this celebration. Still, I want to grow beyond that and I want to get to the point where we expect to go into these games and win them.”