I’m thinking this is one financial pill the university will gladly swallow.
Saturday night, No. 16 Washington State upended/upset No. 5 USC in the Cougars’ first win over the Trojans in Pullman since 2002. Much to the chagrin of at least on USC football player, the win sent Wazzu fans in attendance storming onto the Martin Stadium field in a celebratory frenzy.
In the eyes of the Pac-12, however, that’s a no-no as the conference fined the school $25,000, the league confirmed Monday night.
Last year, the Pac-12 enacted a series of guidelines dealing with the fan-storming issue. A first offense would result in a $25,000 fine per the new policy, followed by $50,000 and $100,000 fines for the second and third incidents, respectively.
This action marks the first time a member school has been fined by the conference under its new policy.
Coming off that win, Wazzu climbed five spots to No. 11 in both the Associated Press and coaches’ polls. Conversely, USC fell to No. 14 in the former and No. 15 in the latter.