Following Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball’s 76-75 upset of No. 6 Tennessee on Jan. 18, fans stormed the court and celebrated with the team. The Southeastern Conference announced a day later that it would fine the University $250,000 for violating its “access to competition area” policy.
At its 2023 meetings, the SEC passed a new tiered offense-based system for access to competition area violations. These new policies include $100,000 for the first offense, $250,000 for the second offense and $500,000 for the third and subsequent offenses.
Under this new system, Saturday’s storming was the second offense — the first occurring when Vanderbilt Football defeated then No. 1 Alabama in October. These policies also state that if the violation occurs during conference play, the fine must be paid to the team it occurred against. As such, Vanderbilt will pay its fine to the University of Tennessee.
Saturday’s game boasted a sold-out crowd — 14,316 people — with fans from both sides lined up before the doors opened. The student section, in its designated area along the far side of the court, was packed full. Students relished the moment by celebrating with their peers and the team.
“[Rushing the court] was honestly a split-second decision,” Alice Heiden, a Class of 2025 student, said. “Within a couple seconds, the few rows in front of me were cleared and I just ran. It was such an insane energy and great to celebrate with the friends I came with and so many others I knew from around campus.”
Vanderbilt’s players also enjoyed the court storming, saying that they were there to see the October field storming and wanted to create the same environment in Memorial Gymnasium.
“We were actually part of that Alabama storm on the field,” Vanderbilt guard Jason Edwards said after the game. “[When we got down there] we kind of huddled up, looked around and said [to each other], ‘This is going to be us soon.’ [Today] was a surreal feeling; we prayed for times like this, we worked for times like this and [when] it was upon us it was a great feeling.”
Vanderbilt University has not issued a statement regarding the fine and did not immediately respond to a request for a statement.