‘Storming the floor’ & ‘rushing the field’ are rights of college sports. Keep them.
“Rushing the field” and “storming the court” are one of those design flaws that works the same as rock climbing, bungee jumping, a two-party system, football, car racing, bounce houses, surfing, Valentine’s Day, all-you-can-eat steak houses, 15-year-old baby sitters, boxing, petting zoos, sky diving, tacos from a gas station, mosh pits, and Big Gulps.
These are all terrible ideas, but if we’re going to keep all of these banning a “rush the field” feels like too much. It feels like there is a way to do this.
No. 15 Baylor’s outcome against TCU on Monday night in basketball was the ultimate point of curiosity followed closely by whether students would rush the floor. Not sure if those are Vegas prop bets, but that’s an opportunity.
Rather than rush the floor, most of the fans rushed for the exits early as Baylor kicked around TCU, 62-54. (This game was not this close).
The tradition of college students running on to the field, or floor, to celebrate their team’s big win has justifiably come under scrutiny since the start of the 2023 football season. The noise will end around March 10, when the regular-season schedules for college basketball finishes.
After that, “storming the court” won’t be an issue again until, at the earliest, mid September. More like October, when college football’s conference games have begun.
‘Til then, us blowhard, full-of-ourselves media types have taken to our podcasts, keyboards, cameras, and selfie sticks to express outrage over what has indeed finally become an issue. It’s currently at max volume after Duke forward Kyle Filipowski suffered a leg injury when he collided with a Wake Forest student who rushed the floor after the Demon Deacons’ upset win over the Blue Devils on Feb. 24.
How has this not happened sooner?
The leg injury is not serious, but the severity is not the issue. The issue is the risk of what could happen versus the benefits of kids “just having fun,” and tradition. Because if you are the one celebrating, this can be a lot of fun.
“If people do storm the court you have to make sure there is a way to protect the players,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said after his team’s win.
He is right. Figure this out.
ESPN veteran basketball analyst Jay Bilas, a Duke grad, has taken a break from his day job of verbally blistering the NCAA 29 hours a day to campaign to cease the practice of “court storming.” The only person who does righteous indignation better than Bilas is Sam Wasterston when he was the district attorney on “Law and Order.”
Bilas makes a compelling argument, but ask someone who has been at the center of one of these. No, not just the fans.
On Feb. 22, 1986, then TCU guard Jamie Dixon hit a leaning runner from about 25 feet at the buzzer to defeat Texas by one point in Fort Worth. Fans rushed the floor, and for the 764,135 people who claimed to be in attendance had an experience for life.
For Dixon, his teammates, that coaching staff and all of those fans, that’s a rare shared experience of spontaneous joy that is impossible to stage, much less duplicate. You don’t want to ban these.
Storming the field/court happened for years in Major League Baseball, and the NBA. Didn’t happen much, but it is not hard to find a few clips of fans running onto the field at Yankee Stadium, or the Boston Garden, after some playoff wins. Every so often in the NFL.
Those leagues put an end to those scenes, because they could.
Every major college athletic conference, save for the ACC, has penalties for school’s that don’t prevent the rushing of the field/floors. They’re fines, which the schools gladly pay from their “We Win!” fund.
It feels like more stringent policies are coming. Or at least the discussion.
Kansas coach Bill Self told ESPN on Monday that he’d like to do away with the court storming, in part because he feels like the game has enough to sell they don’t need it.
Here is the part all of these coaches are missing in their justified concerns about these little field-rushes; what separates their game from the pros is the college party. Is the fun. It’s the “rush.”
It’s kids celebrating with other kids. Because, in this day and age, the game is no longer enough.
A big part of the allure of college football, and college basketball, is the pre party. The after party. The frat party. The tailgating. The sharing of pictures all over social media. Bemoan that evolution all you want, but that is the draw to a lot of this (and still not as much as gambling).
Banning certain aspects not only does away with a fun tradition, but it’s one more reason not to leave your couch.
By design “storming the court” is terrible, but it’s one of those things that has “worked.” And it needs to keep working.
Figure it out.
This story was originally published February 26, 2024 at 11:58 PM.
