A $100,000 fine would be a big deal if given to a college’s men’s gymnastics or wrestling team. It might be a significant slice of an entire budget for a non-revenue driving team.
But for an SEC football team that packs a stadium with 110,000 screaming maniacs six or seven times each fall, that’s less than a parking ticket for a millionaire.
The University of Tennessee is gladly cutting a check for $100K and sending it to the home office of the Southeastern Conference; that is the price they have to pay for allowing fast to storm the field following the Volunteer’s epic 52-49 win over Alabama Saturday.
The field at Neyland Stadium was a sea of orange, filled with celebrating students and fans who had waited over a decade for a win like this over national power.
The conference put the rule in place to prevent situations like what occurred in Knoxville—like security guards had a chance of trying to stop the swarms hopping the wall and landing on the field.
Fans weren’t content with just soaking in the scene and grabbing some selfies. They took down the goalposts in both end zones, paraded them through Knoxville, and dumped them into the nearby Tennessee River.
The Vols have a game next Saturday at home, and having goalposts is kind of a requirement, so the University is asking for donations to pay for a new set.
Here’s a message from their Twitter account.
“Y’all remember how we tore the goalposts down, hauled them out of Neyland, and dumped them in the Tennessee River? Yeah, that was awesome. Anywho, turns out that in order to play next week’s game, we need goalposts on our field. Could y’all help us out?”
They are serious. The school is asking kind and generous citizens who want to help out to donate through the VolStarter web page. A pair of brand new goalposts costs about $150K. So far, they’ve raised over half.
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