After an eventful weekend of college football, two winners are paying the price.
On Monday, the SEC handed down six-figure fines to Vanderbilt and Arkansas after fans stormed the field following the two schools’ wins over top-five opponents. Arkansas came from behind to defeat then-No. 4 Tennessee on Saturday, while Vanderbilt knocked off then-No. 1 Alabama.
Alabama and Tennessee were knocked down to No. 7 and No. 8, respectively, in the AP poll as a result of the losses.
Vanderbilt has been fined $100,000 for fans storming the field after the victory, which was the school’s first-ever win over a No. 1 team. Fans tore down a goal post and carried it more than two miles from the stadium to dump it into the Cumberland River. Eventually, the posts were fished out of the river by the Nashville fire department.
Arkansas, meanwhile, has been fined $250,000 for Saturday’s field-storming as a result of it being a second offense. Arkansas students stormed the court after defeating Duke in men’s basketball last November, and the school was fined $100,000 as result.
Both instances were in violation of the SEC’s “access to competition area policy,” which requires schools to keep the field or court limited to authorized personnel.
The SEC raised the fines for fans storming fields and courts in 2023, with the first offense increasing from $50,000 to $100,000. Under the new guidelines, if Arkansas fans storm again, it will cost the school $500,000. Fines are paid to the opposing school, per SEC rules.
Suddenly in need of a little extra cash, Vanderbilt has set up an auction selling mementos of the win. Four-inch pieces of the goal posts cost $1,005, while eight-inch pieces cost $4,035; as of Monday morning, both had sold out in less than 12 hours. Also included are pylons (selling for $1,000 each as of Monday), the game balls (more than $4,000 as of Monday) and a personalized game helmet, which had ballooned from $7,000 to $30,000 in a few hours on Monday morning. The auction will run through Thursday.
