College sports leaders have made half-hearted attempts for years to get their arms around court and field storms. It’s time to do better, time to do more.
The latest call for action came from Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball coach Jon Scheyer on Saturday afternoon, after a loss at the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Scheyer saw his best player and likely NBA draft lottery pick, big man Kyle Filipowski, suffer what the coach said was a sprained ankle during a scary-fast court storming by Demon Deacons fans. (Filipowski later reportedly said it was a knee injury.) This was a completely uncontained mob running heedlessly through the players immediately after the buzzer sounded.
“When are we going to ban court storming?” Scheyer asked. “Like, how many times does a player have to get into something where they get punched or they get pushed or they get taunted right in their face? It’s a dangerous thing.”
Filipowski believes the Wake Forest fans intentionally collided with him, according to the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer. “I absolutely feel that it was personal—intentional, for sure,” Filipowski said. “There’s no reason where they see a big guy like me trying to work my way off the court and can’t just work around me. There’s no excuse for that.”
Duke's Kyle Filipowski appeared to be injured after colliding with a Wake Forest fan who was storming the court
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 24, 2024
(via @CBSSportsCBB) pic.twitter.com/6Wwz5iJMQ9
A few weeks ago, the biggest star in college basketball, the Iowa Hawkeyes’ Caitlin Clark, had a near-full-speed collision with an oblivious fan rushing onto the court at the Ohio State Buckeyes. Clark was uninjured, but it easily could have been much worse.
Court and field storms prove the cliché about something only being fun and games until someone gets hurt. Saturday, one of the best players in men’s college hoops got hurt (how badly remains to be seen). It’s time to seriously disincentivize the fun and games.
Yeah, they can produce unforgettable moments for fans and viral videos for the media. But they can clearly go wrong. Fans do not belong on the field or court, and giving them unchecked access in chaotic and emotionally charged situations is an abdication of responsibility by the home school.
Don’t make excuses for them, shifting responsibility to the athletes and coaches. They’re supposed to be on the playing surface. It shouldn’t be incumbent upon them to safeguard themselves amid mayhem.
Some coaches will remove their starters and even send them to the locker rooms early if they sense a storm is coming in a game that is out of hand, but in the case of the Duke-Wake game, which wasn’t decided until the final seconds, that was not possible. Nor should it have to be.
(If Wake Forest had any security plan in place Saturday, it sure wasn’t evident. That was as uncontrolled of a court storm as I’ve seen in years.)
“On behalf of Wake Forest, we sincerely regret the unfortunate on-court incident following this afternoon’s men’s basketball game and hope the involved Duke student-athlete is doing better,” Wake Forest athletic director John Currie said in a statement.
“Although our event management staff and security had rehearsed postgame procedures to protect the visiting team and officials, we clearly must do better,” Currie said. “I appreciate the postgame comments of [Scheyer] and I am in complete agreement that something more must be done about the national phenomenon of court and field storming and Wake Forest looks forward to being a part of those conversations."
Cory Knowlton/USA TODAY Sports
At bare minimum, a postgame countdown clock could be instituted to get both teams and the officials off of the floor or field. Maybe it’s 30 seconds in basketball and two minutes in football. But even then, and even with educating the fans on such a rule, good luck getting the fans not to jump the gun.
Last year, in response to football field storms that flirted with disaster, the Southeastern Conference examined an array of options for stronger penalties. The ultimate deterrent—a forfeit—wasn’t seriously considered. But some athletic directors within the league were in favor of another extreme response—offending schools would lose a home game the following season.
The league ultimately settled on doubling its fines, to $100,000 for a first offense, $200,000 for the second and $500,000 for the third. For league games, the SEC also added the tweak of having the offending school pay the fine directly to the stormed-upon school, as opposed to paying the league office. The league also instituted protocols for creating a safe pathway off the playing surface for the opposing team and officials.
But given the amount of money SEC schools bring in—with plenty more on the way—it still isn’t much of a deterrent. Ole Miss Rebels fans stormed the field after beating the LSU Tigers and wrote the six-figure check to the Baton Rouge school. Missouri Tigers fans stormed after a 61-yard field goal to beat the Kansas State Wildcats. The South Carolina Gamecocks incurred a recent fine for a basketball court storm after beating the Kentucky Wildcats.
The Atlantic Coast Conference has no established fine structure for court or field storms. For Wake Forest, this completely overshadowed its biggest win of the season and what ultimately could be its biggest in many years, if the Demon Deacons sneak off the bubble and into the NCAA tournament.
Ultimately, it’s time for leagues to reconsider the loss of a home game for schools that cannot adequately keep fans off of the playing surface. The only thing that would be a true disincentive is one that can lead to a material competitive disadvantage, and that would do it. (Losing home-game revenue also would be a major financial blow to the athletic department, especially in football.)
Half measures haven’t worked. Now, we’ve had two vivid, high-profile examples of what can go wrong in a court storm. There’s no need to wait for an even bigger disaster to strike before finally getting serious about the situation.
