[HitsterParticipant]

I see Kyle Filipowski has possibly got injured due to Wake Forest fans storming the court in the win over Duke. Has this always been allowed in the NCAA as a highly rated prospect could get a major injury?

What if this happened in the NBA where players get bans for leaving the bench?

Also you could have older coaching staff caught up in the melee?

The NCAA guards its name and legacy carefully. Maybe they need to think about this issue or only allow it at certain games. If it happens continuously then threaten the offending teams with next home game behind closed doors. That would soon stop the problem

[BothTeamsPlayedHard-Participant]

A big part of the appeal of college football and basketball stems from the connection between the student body in the stands and the players on the field. It is more historical than an accurate portrayal. The big time college programs have their athletes isolated in separate dorms, separate athletic facilities from the population as a whole, and in some cases are mostly taking online courses. This is a far cry from the romanticized vision of someone supporting Player A because he lives on the same floor, Player B because they are in the same business class, or being friends with the quarterback because they played pickup last weekend. At a school like Davidson, where Steph Curry went, with 2,000 students, it might be closer to reality because the school is small and its sports are not that big. In all likelihood, most students know a few athletes from class or elsewhere. Wake and Duke are small by ACC standards but have 5 or 6,000 undergrads and massive athletic infrastructure. Still, universities love selling the visual of the team being a part of the student body, which is why field storming in football and court storming in basketball is so widely accepted. It is dangerous, especially with the first ones to get out there. The heavy level of inebriation among the frat boys pining to get in on the celebration, and their disdain for the opposition only grew by the drink and the repeated taunting of the opposing players, is asking for problems. Eventually it is just a bunch of students walking out there with their phones out, at which point it isn’t a big deal. The issue at hand is the NCAA has to allow the players to get off the floor before letting the students get on.

[HitsterParticipant]

Good points BTPH. I doubt many one and done basketball players mingle much with those who are there purely academically. But with football players who have to do 3 years in college I wonder if there is more mingling.

Does the crowd swarming happen in college football as much as in basketball? I’m based in England so I don’t follow all the US college sports. We used to have fans running onto the pitch after certain professional sports games but when there was trouble it eventually got banned. In some sports encroaching on the playing area can result in arrest.

Really the money colleges make they should be able to afford NBA security protocols/

[BothTeamsPlayedHard-Participant]

When the highly ranked blue blood programs lose in college football, the fans storm the field. Much like when Duke or Kansas lose at basketball in a road game, when Alabama loses at football the opposing fans storm the field. It happens because the coaches and athletes on the losing teams are the only ones who dislike it. They are, however, the ones at risk. I don’t think the issue is affordability of security, because there isn’t any resistance. Once the game ends, the security guys wave them through. They could very well simply tell them to wait a minute for the opposing team to clear the floor, but that would probably too formal an admission that the universities want it to happen despite the fact it is clearly the case.

[HitsterParticipant]

I’ve been listening to what ESPN have been saying about it and some on the NCAA Conference Commissioners. Some Conferences have protocols or don’t allow it whilst others have no such policy. Senior college coaches have spoken out against it and said it was almost up to the visiting team to plan their own court exit.

The vast majority of court intruders seem to be the younger/student aged fans but those looking to justify it talk about the strong bond that fans have with the Uni over many years so these would be the older fans who maybe support the college team instead of a professional sports team. So it doesn’t quite add up.

I don’t want to be a killjoy but a high profile female and male prospect has been injured in recent weeks. These college athletes are big guys and if a fan got in their face there is also the risk of a physical altercation happening especially if the player is angry his team has lost and might be being jostled and provoked.

Imagine if Bronny James had been involved in a court surge and his health condition had not been diagnosed and that triggered it.

[Author]

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