ACC Announces Plan to Fine Schools for Court and Field Storming

The league announced new safety rules that will fine schools for storming the field and the court beginning this fall.

The ACC has instituted new rules against court and field storming. / Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat / USA TODAY NETWORK

ACC Kickoff is this week in Charlotte, NC, as schools from across the conference participate in media availability ahead of the new football season that begins next month.

As is customary at conference media events, updated guidelines or important announcements are disseminated amongst those in attendance.

On Tuesday, the ACC issued a memo that indicated that there would be "elevated expectations" for event security plans in men's and women's basketball, as well as football beginning this academic year. The elevated plans include allowing teams to exit the field or court following competition, and allowing only players, coaches, officials and authorized personnel to be allowed on the field or court at all times.

If fans storm the field or the court, the school will be in breach of the conference's event security policy, and will be subject to fines. The fines will increase for each occurrence over a rolling two-year period before resetting. In addition, occurrences accumulate by school rather by sport. So if fans storm the field after a football game in September and then storm the basketball court in November, the court storm will be considered a second offense against the policy.

The first occurrence results in a $50,000 fine. The second? $100,000. The third offense and any subsequent occurrences over the two-year rolling period will be a $200,000 fine.

All fines will be put into the conference's postgraduate scholarship account.

Expect fans to be fans when upsets hit in the ACC this year, but the decision to storm the field or the court won't be without consequence to the school.

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