Earlier this week, outgoing SEC commissioner Mike Slive confirmed that his conference was looking to stiffen penalties for schools whose fans rush the field/storm the courts following wins.
With the league’s annual spring meetings coming to a close, those stiffer penalties have officially been enacted -- and they are more than a slap on the wrist.
The previous penalties were on a sliding scale, with $5,000 fines for a first offense, $25,000 for a second offense and $50,000 for each violation thereafter within a three-year period. After that three-year period, the slate was wiped clean.
Moving forward, the fine is $50,000 for a first offense, $100,000 for a second and a whopping $250,000 for a third offense. The biggest news, however, may be that there is no three-year period to be wiped clean; rather, the $250,000 penalty will be in force for, well, forever.
For example: If a third offense is committed in, say, November of this year, and then a fourth in 2019, the $250,000 fine is applicable.
That said, given the new revenue numbers that came in today, and the projections for future years, I’m thinking the SEC schools will be able to bite the financial bullet if its fan deem it necessary to rush the field/storm the courts three or more times. Or, as Ole Miss fans did last year after their post-Alabama win field rush, they’ll just donate the money to pay for the fines themselves.