Field stormings have become too common in college football.
It seems like every weekend you turn around and some team’s student section has stormed the field after a mildly impressive win over a mid-ranked team.
In previous years, a fanbase would storm the field after their team pulled off the improbable.
Maybe it was an unranked team taking down the 3rd ranked team in the nation. Or maybe it was a mediocre team upsetting its highly-ranked rival.
For example, Vanderbilt students stormed the field after the unranked Commodores took down number one-ranked Alabama last year.
Regardless of the scenario, it used to mean something to storm the field after a win.
But now storming the field has become common and honestly, boring.
For example, on Oct. 18, unranked Arizona State defeated 7th-ranked Texas Tech.
After the win, the fans stormed the field in a triumphant display of victory.
And yes, the win was exciting and a big-time victory that put Arizona State back in Big 12 title talks, but was it field-storm worthy?
No. Arizona State wasn’t some underdog. They were the defending Big 12 champions who had been ranked to start the year.
And to be honest, Texas Tech was ranked so highly more so because of circumstances outside of their control than anything they had done.
The Red Raiders weren’t the 7th best team in the country and they didn’t even have their starting quarterback in the Arizona State game.
Thus, the field storm felt tacky. It felt like something fans did because it was the popular thing to do, not because the occasion called for it.
And that is why you see it every weekend. It’s trendy.
Your team gets a decent win over a good team — better storm the field. It’s eye-roll inducing at best. And dangerous at worst.
Field stormings always occur in the immediate aftermath of a game.
As soon as the clocks hit zero, fans can’t wait to run out onto the field to tear down goalposts and act a-fool.
But what about the dozens of players, coaches and media members still on the field when the game ends.
Well, they get bullrushed from all sides by the drunken masses — which, you know, is totally not dangerous or anything.
Sure, it might get the adrenaline pumping for the winning team, but it keeps the losing team on the field way longer than they have to be as they try to reach the locker room.
Not to mention, the whole massive inebriated crowd rushing in unison to a designated area-thing has its own problems.
After Virginia’s Sept. 27 upset over 8th-ranked Florida State, fans stormed the field not even a second after the game ended.
This resulted in 19 people being injured. Shocker.
Eyewitnesses even reported seeing unconscious individuals and one person with broken legs.
And besides, what did the win even amount to?
Florida State was quickly exposed as a fraudulent team as they lost their next three games and torpedoed out of the rankings.
And while we may say ‘oh, well in the heat of the moment, emotions run high and fans storming the field is just a result of that’.
And I agree. I’m all for the big time highs and lows of college football. It’s why I enjoy the game.
But I’m also all for doing something because it has meaning, not because it’s popular.
Field stormings are like that one song you like.
Sure, it’s got a decent following, but it’s still unknown enough to where you can get excited when you find out someone else knows it. It’s special. It has meaning.
But then that song becomes a TikTok sound or something and it’s everywhere. Everyone knows it. Everyone is playing it. And you’ve now heard it to a nauseating degree.
It’s become meaningless and it doesn’t feel special when you hear it anymore.
That’s field storming. It’s overdone. It’s mainstream. It’s tacky. It’s dangerous.
It feels like they occur, not because the win was big, but because the university wants to have its fifteen minutes of fame on social media.
And it’s left me hoping road favorites win every game from now until eternity so I don’t have to see it anymore.
