Alabama AD Greg Byrne is getting crushed for his wild field storm punishment idea

One of the hot-button issues in collegiate athletics is what to do about fans storming the field. This is a bigger problem in football than basketball because of the sheer quantity of fans at football games and the danger it puts student-athletes, coaches, support staff, and even fans in.

There have been injuries before. Last year, Duke basketball forward Kyle Filipowski was injured when Duke lost to Wake Forest and the Demon Deacon fans rushed the court after to celebrate.

There's also been plenty of cases of confrontation between players and fans on the field following field stormings. It is probably only a matter of time before one of these situations ends very poorly and widespread legislation is adopted.

Forward-thinking higher-ups in collegiate athletics are looking to stop it before the inevitable happens. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey instituted hefty fines as punishments for schools last year. The first offense carries a $100,000 fine. The second offense carries a $250,000 fine. Each offense after that would cost the member institution $500,000.

That certainly didn't deter field stormings last year. Fans of Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Oklahoma still rushed the field after beating Alabama. Crimson Tide Athletic Director Greg Byrne has seen plenty of field stormings during his time at Alabama. If a team beats Alabama, they're going to storm the field if it's a home game. That's been the case for more than a decade now.

Byrne went viral yesterday after he shared an aggressive punishment model to curtail field/court stormings.

"I truly believe (in forfeiting wins)", Byrne said. "If we said that the home team, if they storm the field or the court, they're going to lose that game right then and there, that will stop it."

Of course, Byrne's comments come off as sour grapes to opposing fan bases because no team has endured more field stormings than Alabama has in football. The Crimson Tide have been at the pinnacle of college football for more than a decade and a half and beating them always carries more of a punch for an opponent.

Social media was unkind to the Alabama AD when his comments got out.

The truth is that field and court stormings do look cool on TV. It's one of the first images that come to your mind when you think of big upsets. Alabama has had to endure far too many of them and frankly, a team as good as Tennessee storming the field after beating the Tide last season was a bit embarrassing for a proud program.

I've seen the first tweet reference above circulating where people think opposing fans would dress up and storm the court to force a forfeit, but that's ridiculous. There's no way opposing fans would get enough tickets for a road game to make that happen. That doesn't mean I think Byrne's idea is a good one. I don't.

Common Sense Field/Court Storming Legislation is Coming

It's only a matter of time before there are more severe penalties coming for storming football fields and basketball courts. The fines clearly aren't working, at least not yet. But there are a couple of things that could be done to potentially discourage it.

Would fans storm the field if it cost them a home game the next season? In an eight game SEC football schedule, each team gets four home games and four road games. If you storm the field, the next season one of your home games gets taken away and you play five road games instead. Not only does that make your schedule more challenging, you lose all the revenue that comes with home games.

Some would argue that nothing needs to be done and storming the fields and the courts is a beautiful part of collegiate athletics and one of the last things that make college sports unique.