Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne is proposing a revolutionary idea to end court storming in the college basketball world.
Byrne suggests that the home team should forfeit the game if a mass of fans swarm the court after a victory.
“You have two kids run out there, no, but when you have a sustained rush like what just happened the other day at Wake, you lose the game,” Byrne said, via AL.com. “That will get people to stop.”
The debate about whether or not court storming should be banned was reignited when Duke center Kyle Filipowski was injured following the team’s loss at Wake Forest on Saturday. Demon Deacons’ fans stormed the court, and Filipowski suffered an ankle injury in the process. A similar situation happened to Iowa star Caitlin Clark at Ohio State last month, too, although she wasn’t seriously hurt.
Byrne thinks it will take more than a potential fine to the school to make fans think twice before storming the court and endangering players and coaches.
“Kids aren’t going to be in the stands saying ‘Oh, I don’t want to do this because the school is gonna get fined $200,000,’” Byrne said. “That doesn’t enter their mindset. But if they knew the game that they just had been a part of, celebrated a great win that led to that, if they knew that they were going to lose that game immediately, that would stop them.”
One of the recent fines for court storming was dealt to the University of South Carolina after fans rushed the court following its men’s basketball team’s win over Kentucky. The school had to pay the SEC $100,000 for a first offense.
Other voices in college basketball had different resolutions to the court storming problem. Duke coach Jon Scheyer wants it banned, although he didn’t suggest a potential punishment, while ESPN’s Jay Bilas thinks fans should get arrested or cited if they storm the court.
