Vanderbilt sets example on legal field storming by new SEC bylaws

Vanderbilt University is definitely the smartest school in the SEC. We already knew this, and it's great that the Commodores are finally contributing on the football field as well, but on Saturday, they showed their classmates how a field storming is properly executed in 2025.

Field-storming in football and court-storming in basketball has become a powder keg discussion across college athletics, with detractors and some schools arguing that stormings put player health and safety at risk, while many fans, especially students attending these schools, believe it's a vital ritual to the college sports experience.

Ultimately, the SEC decided in recent years to levy much harsher fines against schools for field storming, increasing the fee all the way up to $500,000 in 2025 even for even one field or court storm. Plus, in a Hamurabian twist, the half-a-million-dollar fine will go straight to the pockets of whichever foe you just beat.

However, the SEC added a clause in the rule stating that fans can rush the field free of charge... so long as they allow the teams to clear the field. On Saturday, Vanderbilt took advantage of that rule, having their raucous fans wait just a couple of extra minutes before descending onto the field like Pirates attacking a wandering schooner.

SEC commends Vanderbilt's field rush

As a result, the SEC announced this week that Vanderbilt safely executed their field storming and would not be fined by the conference.

"Vanderbilt University avoided a fine that accompanies the Southeastern Conference’s access to competition area policy by successfully executing a 'delayed field rush' following its football game against LSU on October 18," the SEC's release stated.

They continued praising Vanderbilt's stellar behavior.

"Near the end of the LSU at Vanderbilt game, Vanderbilt communicated to spectators it would permit fans to enter the field after the visiting team cleared the field," it said. "Vanderbilt fans remained in the stands until the opposing team and officials had exited the playing field."

A round of applause to all of those Vanderbilt fans!

Vanderbilt bit by fines in 2024-25

There's not a ton of mystery behind why Vanderbilt was able to pull this stunt off, because during the 2024-25 sports calendar, the SEC's fines hit the Commodores hard. At one point this past February, Vanderbilt had accumulated more than $800,000 in fines thanks to stormings against Alabama in football, a small fee, which raised much higher when they compounded the football storming with two more in basketball against Auburn and Kentucky.

Vanderbilt already struggles to match resources with many of the schools in the SEC, though as we've all noticed, the 2020s decade and its wholesale changes to collegiate athletics have flattened the divide significantly. Either way, losing nearly a million big ones out of the athletics budget of a school that's routinely at the bottom in athletics is not a smart way to go about building sports success.

So, what did Vanderbilt do? What it had to... forcing students and fans to comply with the SEC's new field storming laws. Vandy basketball coach Mark Byington admitted the truth last season... that fans are going to need a way to let out their pent-up euphoria after a big win. Obviously, Vandy couldn't keep footing fines, so they got everyone on board to give the SEC its first good exmaple of compliance with the new storming laws.

Take note, other SEC teams.

SEC commends Vanderbilt's field rush

Vanderbilt bit by fines in 2024-25

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