On October 15th, The University of Alabama and Tennessee football teams faced off against one another in Neyland Stadium, Tennessee’s home field. This annual matchup has ended in Alabama victory for 15 consecutive years. Alabama was ranked 3rd overall and Tennessee ranked 6th, both teams were undefeated. After a nail biting game, The Vols upset the Tide with a stunning victory by a 40 yard field goal to decide it. The end score was 52-49.
This immediately caused a frenzy of Vols fans to rush the field. During the pandemonium, they took the field goal posts, which they hadn’t done since 1998. The Vol fans carried the goal posts to the nearby Tennessee River, where they threw them in. As the madness ensued, a video of UT President Randy Boyd, was recorded smoking a cigar from his box suite where he stated, “It doesn’t matter. We’re going to do this every year”.
Later that evening, the SEC fined UT $100,000. The University also had to cover the cost of buying new field posts. Despite the deterrents, the SEC continues to have issues with fans storming the fields. The SEC hired more security personnel to prevent this issue after an uprising of fans rushing onto the field. In addition to this, the SEC implemented a regulation stating that the fans who storm the field could receive punishments such as expulsion from the facility, the charge of trespassing, and the loss of future ticket privileges.
Despite the excitement of storming the field, it does cause some issues. After the Vols victory, Nick Saban and Alabama receiver, Jermaine Burton, were confronted by a fan who had to be tackled in order for the teams to get off the field. Saban stated “I talked to him(Burton). He was scared. I was scared. Some of our other players were scared.”
Andrew Siegel, TCU’s sports field manager, gave insight to the lengthy process of cleaning up after the field has been stormed. Siegel and his 8 person team have to clean the debris from the storming so that their lawn mowers don’t get damaged. Siegel states “I think we found cell phones…We’ve also picked up sunglasses, a pocket knife, lighters, peanuts, pizza crust and beer cans.” TCU, UT, and other schools have real grass, so it’s Siegel’s team and other field teams’ job to maintain it. Mid-October is the prime time for ryegrass (which makes the fields look green in the winter) seeds to be planted. After the fields are stormed, the new seeds are compacted and die.
Recently, it’s much more commonplace to storm the field than it used to be. FiveThirtyEight, a statistics company, calculated that there were 27 instances in 2020, 14 in 2019, and 10 in 2018. Dr. Stephen P. Gonzalez, an executive board member for the Association of Applied Sport Psychology explains this rise, “In a post-COVID year, I think that there’s just a lot of built up or pent up need for normalcy. When athletics are a large part of a school’s identity and in some of these major conferences, it’s an opportunity for people to kind of feel like they’re a part of something that’s bigger than them…. So this is almost like a release valve for a lot of people.”.
Nick McKenna, Texas A&M’s assistant athletic director for sports fields, describes the recent storming of the field as “ some of what makes college athletics great. Is it ideal? No. But, at the same time, you embrace it. You can’t change it. Have fun. We’ll do our job and do everything to cover it and make the field right afterward.” With the College Football Championship game fastly approaching, all eyes are on the field and the fans for the outcome of one of the nation’s most watched sporting events.