college football fans storm the field in celebration after defeating the heavily favored No. 3
USC Trojans in an upset. fans rushing the field after defeating rival
Texas Tech in 2009 fans prepare to rush the field in a historic upset of No. 3
USC in 2006 A pitch invasion is common in
college and
high school football when a team pulls off a major upset, defeats a major rival, ends a long
losing streak, or notches a history-making win. With the widespread advent of artificial turf, some schools have become more lenient about students storming the field. Goalposts are also taken down within moments of the end of the game as a cautionary measure to prevent fans from climbing atop them to cause damage to the standard holding them up, damage to television camera equipment on the posts, and spectator injury. In the
National Football League, rushing the field usually results in a lifetime revocation of
season tickets, even if given or sold to another person, along with a lifetime
trespassing notice banning the rusher from the team and/or stadium property, or in cases of multiple rushes, other league stadiums.
Incidents •
Chicago College All-Star Game (23 July 1976): with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter, the
Pittsburgh Steelers led the College All-Stars 24–0 when a torrential rainstorm hit the field which made play impossible. After officials called for a delay, drunk and unruly fans invaded the field and tore down the goalposts. Officials, security, and police attempted to clear the field, but twelve minutes later,
NFL Commissioner
Pete Rozelle and the sponsoring
Chicago Tribune announced that the game had been called, which was greeted with jeers, and numerous brawls broke out on the flooded field before order was finally restored. •
Muscatine High School (8 September 1978): a
high school football example, where fans celebrated the end of a long losing streak, as the Muskies had lost 44 consecutive games from 1973 to 1977, including 40 straight league games in the
Mississippi Valley Conference. Optimism was high that the Muskies, now members of the newly formed
Mississippi Eight Conference, would end their five-year-long losing streak sometime during the 1978 season, but it was in the season opener on the road against Ottumwa that Muscatine won their first game since the 1973 season opener. A touchdown with just over a minute left and a two-point conversion put Muscatine ahead with a 15–12 lead. Ottumwa advanced the ball to the Muskie 33-yard line on the ensuing series, but was intercepted in the Muskie end zone with two seconds left. As soon as time expired, more than 1,000 Muskie fans rushed the field to celebrate its first win in 45 contests; an attempt to tear down the goalposts was not successful. •
Buffalo Bills v
Miami Dolphins (7 September 1980, NFL): the Bills broke a 20-game losing streak against their division rival, the Dolphins, on this day, prompting the 79,000 fans in attendance at
Rich Stadium to storm the field and tear down the stadium's goalposts. •
California v
Stanford (20 November 1982,
Pacific-10 football): in the final seconds of the 1982
Big Game against the
University of California, Berkeley (Cal),
Stanford Band members and Stanford players ran out onto the field, thinking the game was over. Cal players
lateralled the kickoff back and forth, with Cal's Kevin Moen dodging through the band for a winning touchdown, which he ended by running over trombone player Gary Tyrrell in the end zone. "
The Play" is celebrated by Cal fans and inspires the ire of many Stanford fans. To this day, it remains one of the most famous plays in American football history. (The game does not end until the last play ends, even if the game clock runs out of time while the last play is still in progress. A penalty was called as a result of "The Play", but it was only because the spectators and band members had crowded onto the field while the game was in progress.) •
Philadelphia Stars v
Michigan Panthers (17 July 1983,
USFL football)
USFL Championship Game: after dropping four out of five games to start their first season in the new league, Michigan acquired some NFL veterans to finish the year 12-6 and vaulted over the Oakland Invaders in the single-tier playoffs. In front of a crowd of 46,565 paid attendees at
Mile High Stadium in
Denver, the Panthers' late drive for a touchdown moved victory out of reach for the Stars, beating them 24–22. Despite the neutral ground afforded by a Super Bowl-style championship where the venue is selected in advance of the playoffs, several hundred Michigan fans stormed the field and congregated in the area of the south stands and south goalpost. Fans briefly mounted the goalpost, nearly breaking it down, and missiles, notably bottles, were hurled by fans at
Denver Police, who responded with
K-9 enforcement, mace and batons. In the melee, 12 fans were arrested by police, half from Michigan. •
Kentucky v
LSU (9 November 2002,
SEC football): Kentucky looked as if they would pull off a home upset of the Tigers when they held a 30–27 lead with two seconds left and LSU with the ball at their own 26-yard line. As
quarterback Marcus Randall heaved a
Hail Mary pass downfield, fans rushed onto the edges of the field ready to celebrate Kentucky's victory; however, the pass was deflected off two Wildcat defenders and into the hands of LSU
wide receiver Devery Henderson, who was able to run into the
end zone to cap a 33–30 win for LSU and leaving the fans on the field stunned at the turn of events. The play would come to be known as the
Bluegrass Miracle. Five years later, at the same stadium, Wildcats fans invaded the field after avenging the loss with a thrilling triple-overtime win, and the school was fined $50,000 for a third violation of the conference's policy prohibiting field storming (see below). •
Texas Tech v Texas (2 November 2008): Texas Tech fans invaded the
Jones AT&T Stadium turf three times during the final moments of the game. The first happened after
Michael Crabtree caught a touchdown pass from
Graham Harrell with one second to go: overjoyed fans, thinking the game was over and the
Red Raiders had upset
No. 1-ranked Texas, spilt out onto the field, doing so again after the replay official announced that Crabtree had indeed stayed inbounds the moment before crossing the goal line. Tech was assessed two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for this, forcing them to kick off from the 7-and-a-half yard line. After the ball was recovered by Tech, the game ended and the fans stormed the field one final time without penalty. •
Auburn v Alabama (30 November 2013):
Auburn University faced off against their arch-rivals, the
University of Alabama in their annual rivalry game, popularly known as the
Iron Bowl. Alabama entered the season ranked No. 1 after winning two consecutive BCS National Championships. Auburn had begun the season unranked but had moved up to No. 4 in the rankings, marking the second time both teams were ranked in the Top 5 of the BCS rankings. The winner of the game would earn the right to play in the
SEC Championship Game. With one second left on the clock and the score tied, Alabama elected to attempt a 57-yard field goal. The kick was short and Auburn defender
Chris Davis fielded it from nine yards deep in his own end zone. He returned the kick all the way to the Alabama end zone, scoring the game-winning touchdown, in a play known as the
Kick Six. In spite of the SEC's penalties for rushing the field, thousands of Auburn fans (mainly students) flooded the field in delight at earning a spot in the SEC Championship game, as well as ending arch-rival Alabama's
national title hopes. Following the game, the Auburn grounds crew discovered that among the debris left on the field was a pile of cremains on the Auburn sideline, assumed to be placed there by a fan honoring a deceased relation's request to have his ashes scattered on the field. (Traditionally, sports teams rarely permit "burials" on their fields in order to protect the health of the turf: if so, it is almost always an important club figure whose remains are scattered, or are properly buried and interred below the turf during a maintenance period.) •
Florida State v
Virginia (26 September 2025): Virginia fans raided the Scott Stadium field after the Cavaliers upset the eighth-ranked Seminoles in double overtime, 46–38.
Southeastern Conference penalties Section 10.5 of the
Southeastern Conference By-Laws has a progressive fine policy adopted in 2004 for major sports: $5,000 for the first offense, $25,000 for the second offense, and $50,000 for third and subsequent offenses within a three-year period of the last field storming. In May 2015, the fines increased to $50,000; $100,000; and $250,000 for the first, second, and third plus subsequent offenses, respectively, with a period for past violations being increased from three years to five. In 2023, the fines were respectively further increased to $100,000; $250,000; and $500,000 and changed so the fine would be paid to the opposing institution for conference games (nonconference games continued to have the fine paid to the SEC's scholarship fund), with each team also being given a clean slate. Since 2025, SEC schools are fined $500,000 for every field- or court-storming offense. For an
upset situation, the fine (which in college sports is usually a donation to a conference's scholarship fund rather than a punitive payment, as is the course for the SEC) is generally taken as a "badge of honor" by the school and its fanbase that knows the cost of storming well in advance, and fans and the school's
booster club proudly donate the funds to a school's athletic department needed to pay the fine, along with the secondary cost for the replacement of damaged or removed goalposts. The
Kentucky Wildcats were hit with "the triple" for three football field stormings within eleven months, involving
upset wins against league powers and an in-state rival: • On 4 November 2006, the team was fined $5,000 for a field invasion after a football win against
Georgia. • On 15 September 2007, the team was fined $25,000 for a storming after a football non-conference win against
archrival Louisville. • On 13 October 2007, the team was fined $50,000 for a field rush after a triple-overtime football win against top-ranked
LSU. Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Missouri had been fined $25,000 for second offense violations, but most SEC schools were fined $5,000. Alabama has never been fined, considering itself far too classy an institution to partake in field-storming. Missouri's fine is notable in that their second violation occurred after only three years as a member of the SEC: both came when supporters flooded
Faurot Field after the team clinched a trip to the
SEC Championship Game, in
2013 and
2014.
LSU was fined $100,000 for a second offence following its victory 13 October 2018, against
Georgia. Its first offence was 25 October 2014, following a victory over
Ole Miss, drawing just a $5,000 fine. LSU fans twice tore down the goalposts in
2000, following victories over
Tennessee and
Alabama, but did not invade the
Tiger Stadium field again until 2014. The goalposts remained intact during the 2014 and 2018 incidents.
Auburn became the first SEC institution to be fined the maximum of $250,000, following its football victory over
Alabama on 25 November 2017. This came on top of violations following Auburn victories over Alabama in football in
2013 and Kentucky in men's basketball in 2016. Auburn was fined another $250,000 after fans stormed the field following its
Iron Bowl victory on 30 November 2019.
Arkansas was fined $250,000 when its fans stormed the field after a victory over
Texas on 11 September 2021. Two weeks later,
Kentucky was hit with a $250,000 fine following a victory over
Florida, the Wildcats' first home win over the Gators since 1986. In 2022,
LSU was hit with two $250,000 fines following successive home wins over
Ole Miss and
Alabama. The goalposts remained standing following both incidents.
Missouri became the first institution to be fined $100,000 for a first offense following a last-second upset win over No. 15
Kansas State after the game ended on an SEC record 61-yard successful field goal.
Ole Miss became the second two weeks later when it defeated
LSU. The Rebels were fined an additional $75,000 for fans throwing debris onto the field at various times during the game. On October 5, 2024, both Arkansas and Vanderbilt scored upset victories over then-No. 4 Tennessee and then-No. 1 Alabama, respectively, resulting in field invasions. This marked the first instance that two top 5 SEC teams lost to unranked conference opponents in the same day. The schools were fined $250,000 and $100,000, respectively. LSU was assessed a $250,000 fine when fans rushed the field after another victory against Ole Miss on October 12, 2024. Texas and LSU were each fined $250,000 by the SEC in 2024 for fans throwing debris onto the field during losses by their respective football teams, the Longhorns vs. Georgia (October 19) and the Tigers vs. Alabama (November 9). The SEC also mandated both universities identify offenders and ban them from all athletic events for the remainder of the 2024–25 school year. Ole Miss was fined $350,000 after its November 9, 2024 win vs. Georgia for another field invasion—$250,000 for a second offense and an extra $100,000 for fans entering the playing field before the end of the game.
Oklahoma was assessed its first fine of $100,000 as an SEC member when fans stormed the
Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium gridiron after the Sooners' win over Alabama on 23 November 2024. Like Ole Miss two weeks prior, Oklahoma was fined an additional $100,000 because its fans came on the field before the game ended. Missouri was fined $250,000 when fans rushed the court at
Mizzou Arena after the
men's basketball team defeated
archrival Kansas on 8 December 2024. (
Creighton fans rushed the court at
CHI Health Center Omaha four days earlier when the Bluejays defeated the Jayhawks, but the
Big East Conference does not fine schools for court invasions.) Vanderbilt became the first SEC institution to be fined $500,000 for a third pitch invasion following its
men's basketball win over Kentucky on 25 January 2025. This came one week following the Commodores' men's basketball upset victory over in-state rival Tennessee that drew a $250,000 second pitch invasion fine.
Mississippi State was also fined $500,000 for a field storming after its upset win over
Arizona State on 6 September 2025.
Atlantic Coast Conference penalties Beginning with the 2025–26 academic year, the
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) issued a new event security policy that discourages fans from storming the field or court until the visiting team and game officials have safely exited the playing area. Member schools are fined $50,000 for the first offense, $100,000 for the second offense, and $200,000 for the third and subsequent offenses over a two-year period from the field storming, with the fines being directed to the conference's postgraduate scholarship fund. On 30 August 2025,
Florida State upset Alabama at
Doak Campbell Stadium, 31–17. The school was fined $50,000 for the subsequent field invasion by Seminoles fans. This is the first ACC fine for a field storming.
Other conference penalties Other conferences have similar bylaws; in some conferences, the rule is reset to zero after five years without a field storming, and the fine is doubled in the event that a player or official is injured as a result of the invasion; however, some conferences have begun cracking down on stormings in all sports.
Tearing down the goalposts There has long been a tradition in American football – primarily in college football – under which fans celebrating a major victory will tear down the goalposts on the field after the game. No one knows for certain when or how the tradition started. The
Boston Public Library has in its collection a photograph of fans tearing down a goal post in 1940. Tearing down the goalposts can be dangerous, as people can be injured or killed by a falling goal post. Persons who sit or hang on the goalposts while they are being pulled down can be injured if they fall off or if they land hard on the ground when the goalposts collapse. Camera equipment from a game broadcaster attached to the goalposts results in another injury possibility. These dangers can create legal implications for the schools, the localities, and the venues where the games occur. In
Massachusetts, there is a state statute that specifically prohibits the unauthorized tearing down of goalposts on a football field. Chapter 266, Section 104A of the
Massachusetts General Laws provides: "Whoever willfully and without right destroys, injures or removes a goal post on a football field shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars." The
Massachusetts state legislature enacted the statute in 1960 in response to a tragedy that occurred the previous year. On 26 November 1959 (Thanksgiving Day that year), a 14-year-old girl in
Foxborough, Jane Puffer, was hit on the head by a falling goal post. She had been part of a crowd that was on the field after the conclusion of a high school football game while a group of fans was tearing down a goal post. The steel goal post suddenly toppled to the ground, and Puffer was hit as she was apparently trying to push another girl out of its way. She died of her injuries the next day. The state legislature enacted the statute the following year, and the law has remained unchanged ever since. In spite of the law, on 22 December 1985, fans of the
New England Patriots tore down a goal post in
Sullivan Stadium (also in Foxborough) to celebrate the team's victory there in the regular season finale against the
Cincinnati Bengals, which clinched a playoff berth (and eventual
Super Bowl appearance) for the Patriots. Some fans carried the goal post outside of the stadium, where they caused it to come into contact with an overhead high-voltage power line. A man nearby, Jon Pallazola, was seriously injured. There was evidence that he was injured when he tried to protect himself from being hit by the falling goal post immediately after it became electrified. Pallazola subsequently sued a private security company that had been under contract to provide security at the stadium. He received a large jury verdict against the company, and then settled his claim against the company for $4.5 million. He also sued the Town of Foxborough but, in 1994, the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that his claim against the town was barred by a state statute that gave municipalities immunity from claims that they failed to provide police protection or prevent crimes. On 19 November 1983, an 18-year-old
Harvard University student was critically injured when she was hit on the back of her head by a goal post that Harvard fans tore down to celebrate their team's victory over archrival
Yale University at the
Yale Bowl in
New Haven, Connecticut. The student, Margaret Cimino, subsequently filed a lawsuit in federal court against Yale, the City of New Haven, the City of West Haven, and a security company. She settled her claims against the City of West Haven and the security company. In 1986, a federal judge ruled that Cimino had sufficient evidence to take her claims against Yale and the City of New Haven to trial. The parties then reached a settlement before the trial occurred. On 21 November 1998, a first-year student at
Oregon State University was seriously injured when she was hit on the head by a falling goal post that fans tore down after the football team's 44-41 double overtime victory over the
University of Oregon. She suffered a fractured skull and bleeding in her brain, but she eventually recovered from her injuries. In November 2000, fans of the
University of Texas at El Paso tore down a goal post after a victory. One fan claimed that he was injured when fans pulled the goalposts down while he was hanging on them. He sued the university and the University System of Texas. A Texas intermediate appellate court ruled in 2005 that the lawsuit was barred by governmental immunity. On 20 October 2001, a 21-year-old
Ball State University student was rendered
paraplegic when a goal post that fellow fans tore down to celebrate a victory landed on his back. The university had encouraged the fans to tear down the goal post, flashing a message on the scoreboard which said, "The goal post looks lonely." The student, Andrew Bourne, settled his subsequent claim against the university for $300,000, the maximum amount that he could recover from the school under
Indiana state law. He also filed a
product liability lawsuit against the manufacturer of the goal post, contending that the goal post was "defective and unreasonably dangerous". In 2006, a federal appeals court ruled that the manufacturer was not liable because the danger posed by the goal post was "obvious". In order to prevent injuries, there are collapsible goalposts that stadium staff can take down within seconds after the conclusion of a game to prevent fans from tearing them down. There are also goalposts that are constructed in such a manner that they cannot be taken down by fans. On 4 October 2014, Ole Miss fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts after knocking off No. 1 Alabama 23–17. On 2 November 2015, students at the
University of Kansas illegally broke into
Memorial Stadium and tore down the goalpost at the south end of the field following the
Kansas City Royals'
World Series clinching victory vs. the
New York Mets at
Citi Field. The goalposts at the stadium were also torn down after victories by the
Jayhawks, vs.
Nebraska in 2005 and 2007,
West Virginia in 2013,
Iowa State in 2014,
Texas in 2016,
Oklahoma State in 2022,
Oklahoma in 2023, and in 1994 by fans of archrival
Kansas State. On 15 October 2022, Tennessee fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts after knocking off No. 3 Alabama 52–49 on a game-winning field goal and ending a 15-game losing streak to the Crimson Tide. One was later tossed into the
Tennessee River. On
5 October 2024, Vanderbilt fans rushed the field and tore down one of the goalposts after defeating No. 1 Alabama 40–35. It was the Commodores' first win over a top five opponent in program history as well as their first ever win over a No. 1 ranked opponent in program history, having previously gone 0–60. The fans later tossed the goalpost into the
Cumberland River. ==Association football==