The unranked Vanderbilt Commodores shocked the college football world on Saturday when they took down the No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide at Nashville’s FirstBank Stadium.
Clark Lea’s squad handed Alabama its first loss of the Kalen DeBoer era, notching a 40-35 final score over the visiting Crimson Tide.
This historic upset result electrified the home crowd at FirstBank Stadium. And understandably, many of those in attendance stormed the field after the final whistle blew.
While a fun and longstanding tradition of college football, field storming can be dangerous for players, coaches and fans. As such, field storming is officially outlawed under conference rules.
The SEC fined Vanderbilt University $100,000 for the field storming on Saturday. Per SEC rules, the next offense will result in a $250,000 fine. A third would prompt a $500,000 fine.
The SEC also fined the University of Arkansas for its field storming incident following the Razorbacks’ home win over the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers.
“The Southeastern Conference announced today that Vanderbilt University and the University of Arkansas will be fined for violations of the league’s access to competition area policy due to fans entering the field following its football games on October 5,” the conference announced in a statement.
“Vanderbilt was in violation of the policy following its game against the University of Alabama and will incur a fine of $100,000 for a first offense under the league’s current access to competition area policy that was revised at the SEC Spring Meetings in 2023.”
