Sports

South Carolina Will Pay Tennessee After Storming The Field To Antagonize Players

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Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

South Carolina football fans celebrate a touchdown.


The South Carolina football team beat 11th-ranked Tennessee on Saturday to send the Vols back to Knoxville with a loss. Fans stormed the field after the final whistle.

Multiple altercations were seen between Gamecocks fans and Tennessee players. South Carolina has now been punished.

The program will be fined by the SEC. It broke the league’s “access to competition area policy.” That fine will go directly to Tennessee.

South Carolina beat Tennessee.

The Gamecocks beat the Vols at home, 27-24. After tying the game in the final two minutes of regulation, Dylan Stewart forced a fumble which was recovered by South Carolina.

A few plays later, Malik Orsan kicked a walk-off field goal. Chaos ensued.

Fans stormed the field. Tennessee players and coaches had not yet made their way back to the locker room. A number of exchanges were seen.

Tennessee linebacker Jeremiah Telander swung at a South Carolina player.

Fans were also involved. Video of a player slapping a phone from a person’s hand who had rushed onto the field surfaced on social media.

Here’s another angle of that exchanged.

A video also showed what appeared to be a Tennessee staffer bump a female fan that ran onto the field. That clip can be seen on slide 12 of the below post.

It was a bad look after a crushing loss. Despite the optics, the Vols will receive a payday.

South Carolina was fined by the SEC.

“The Southeastern Conference announced today that the University of South Carolina will incur a fine of $500,000 for a violation of the league’s access to competition area policy following its football game against the University of Tennessee on October 24,” the league wrote in a statement.

“The fine will be paid to Tennessee in accordance with Conference policy, which provides for a $500,000 penalty for violations involving access to competition areas in all SEC-sponsored sports.”

The SEC does not approve of storming the field. It does not want fans and players on the field at the same time. You can see why in the videos posted above.

The fine could be reduced to $100,000 if South Carolina can show that “an attempt to prevent the field rush/court storm was instituted, few individuals breached the competition area and minimal interaction with the visiting team occurred.”

The last condition of that statement is clearly off the table. There was maximum interaction. Some fans went out of their way to antagonize the Vols. Tennessee reacted poorly. Both sides will get an “L.”