TENNESSEE FINED FOR VIOLATION OF ACCESS TO COMPETITION AREA POLICY

[DonYates]

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (October 16, 2022) – The Southeastern Conference announced today that the University of Tennessee will be fined for a violation of the league’s access to competition area policy due to fans entering the field following its football game against the University of Alabama on October 15.

Tennessee will incur a fine of $100,000 for a second offense under the league’s access to competition area policy. Tennessee was last fined for a violation following a basketball game against Florida in 2006.

Fines levied against schools for violation of the access to competition area policy are deposited into the SEC Post-Graduate Scholarship Fund.

The policy states that “access to competition areas shall be limited to participating student-athletes, coaches, officials, support personnel and properly-credentialed individuals at all times. For the safety of participants and spectators alike, at no time before, during or after a contest shall spectators be permitted to enter the competition area. It is the responsibility of each member institution to implement procedures to ensure compliance with this policy.”

Financial penalties are imposed for violations in all sports sponsored by the Conference. Institutional penalties range from $50,000 for a first offense to fines of up to $100,000 for a second offense and up to $250,000 for a third and subsequent offenses. The policy was originally adopted by a vote of Conference members in 2004 and financial penalties were increased by action taken by the membership during the 2015 SEC Spring Meetings.

[MrMemorial]

Let THAT be a lesson!! And if it happens again, SMU will get another death penalty!

[charlestonalum]

They lead the conference in bad sportsmanship, everything from ketchup bottles to human beings thrown or running on the field. Things could be ugly at Dudley later this season: by ugly I mean all the orange in our stadium. I suspect most Vanderbilt fans will keep their distance from the unruly horde. Wonder what the fine is if they storm someone else's field?

[FayetteDore]

That's about $1 per UT fan in the stadium and in the adjoining space they set up with big screen TVs.

Somehow, I suspect it was worth it to them. 8-) 8-) 8-)

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[FayetteDore]

They lead the conference in bad sportsmanship, everything from ketchup bottles to human beings thrown or running on the field. Things could be ugly at Dudley later this season: by ugly I mean all the orange in our stadium. I suspect mist Vanderbilt fans will keep their distance from the ubruly horde. Wonder what the fine is if they storm someone else's field?

From what I see at every home game, most VU fans not only keep their distance from the unruly hordes, they also keep their distance from the stadium altogether. And now you seem to be encouraging VU fans to stay away? That's great support for the team.


At Bryant-Denny, the band plays and the fans sing "We just beat the hell outta you" -- even if it's a cupcake there for a payoff.

At Neyland, the band welcomes the visitors by playing the other team's fight song in front of the visitor's section during the pre-game.
And yesterday, they honored Bill Battle -- the former Tennessee coach who played at Bama, is a B'ham businessman and was later Bama's AD.

You don't get out much do you? 8-)

[GrumpyOldDore]

I won't argue that the UT band displays good sportsmanship though I am surprised that they still show up after having to flee the rain of water bottles and more laughable missiles heaved by the good sports in the stands leading their lives of loud desperation last year at the Ole Miss game.
I agree that Bill Battle, a good and decent man with a pretty good win-loss record, was deserving of the gesture mentioned. Decades earlier Coach Battle was rewarded during his UT coaching tenure and well before his firing with a moving van dispatched to his home by another good sport or sports.
I am sorry that I won't be around forty six years from now when another former Alabama football player and UT coach, Jeremy Pruitt, is honored for being ahead of his time in making it obvious that the beautiful game of amateur college football played by college students, which some of us naively believed in, was really just soulless college-sponsored entertainment for hire and likely will never be anything more.

[charlestonalum]

I won't argue that the UT band displays good sportsmanship though I am surprised that they still show up after having to flee the rain of water bottles and more laughable missiles heaved by the good sports in the stands leading their lives of loud desperation last year at the Ole Miss game.
I agree that Bill Battle, a good and decent man with a pretty good win-loss record, was deserving of the gesture mentioned. Decades earlier Coach Battle was rewarded during his UT coaching tenure and well before his firing with a moving van dispatched to his home by another good sport or sports.
I am sorry that I won't be around forty six years from now when another former Alabama football player and UT coach, Jeremy Pruitt, is honored for being ahead of his time in making it obvious that the beautiful game of amateur college football played by college students, which some of us naively believed in, was really just soulless college-sponsored entertainment for hire and likely will never be anything more.

Come back more often, Grumpy, you bring a welcome perspective.

Fayette, my friend, UT fan behavior is deplorable - I can still sense the cold coca cola poured down my back when in Koxville cheering the commodores in 1965. Things are worse there now being led by their AD among others. Get back to us when you ever see VU fans behave like UT - winning or losing.

[commadore]

Good sportsmanship my @$$. They come into VU stadium and play over our band every chance they get. As soon as our band starts, they play over them. They quit, our band starts, they begin immediately. That isn't sportsmanship. It is just more of what makes me hate those scum sucking garbage truck workers.

[FayetteDore]

You know, CA, two things dawn on me: for a place that you profess to hate, the University of Tennessee sure seems to live rent-free in your head, and you just really don't like to see others having fun.

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[VandyManners]

As much as I cannot stand UT and the wishy, washy fan base that is Vol nation, my question is how Josh Heupel took this dumpster fire of a program to beating THE premier brand in college football in only 2 years? This is what I am talking about when I say if you go hire the right guy you can change a program quickly. James Franklin won 9 games for Vandy in year 2. Heupel looks like a National Championship contender in year 2.

I really like Lea and I am rooting for him, but I feel we need someone who can sell the program and can recruit along with developing talent. We will not be able to compete if we cannot find a way to get higher caliber players to choose Vandy. I do not doubt Lea can coach, but we have to set the bar higher for where our talent is starting from. UT has always recruited well, now it looks like they have a coach that can develop the talent they have. That was Pruitt and Jones's biggest problems they could recruit but not develop. To win in this league you have to do both. I think Lea can develop, but they jury is still out on his ability to recruit. Until we find a way to attract the top recruits around the country, we will continue to be Ben Franklin's definition of insanity.

Now, go beat Missouri!!!

[VU1970]

The fine should be paid in cash, delivered in hamburger sacks.

[VUaskew]

What does this FayetteVol idiot even exist in a Vandy board?

[docdore]

What does this FayetteVol idiot even exist in a Vandy board?

fd has an affinity for both dores and vols. that makes him sort of unusal and his perspective interesting (imo). do you suggest fan "purity" and uniformity of thought among vandymaniacs, askew? no thanks!....that's too much like today's politics.

[VUinFL]

Any football fan that truly thinks that storming the field and tearing down goalposts is "deplorable" should rethink how they spend their Saturdays in the fall. I hope Vanderbilt never knocks off a #1 team during a potential playoff season and the 50% full stands just clap for a few minutes then get out to beat the traffic.

Josh Heupel has proven to have an excellent offensive scheme - I really don't know why his hiring was seen as such a negative. The South is full of RBs and WRs that would love to be in a system like that, you just need a QB and he found one. The "forget stopping them, let's just out-score them" method is certainly entertaining. It hasn't proven to be a long-term multi-National Championship M.O. but it's fun while it lasts.

[charlestonalum]

the deplorable behavior I referred to relates to the many other actions not the storming of the field because they finally won after over a decade of losing to Bama. Deplorable, for example, is raining bottles on the field with an unfavorable referee call (the kind we get all the time from SEC refs) https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ting-call/ in football

Shortly after the series hosted in the Lindsey Nelson Stadium, Mainieri says in an interview his team played in “an extremely hostile environment.” He goes on to say the fans and players were “nasty” throughout the weekend.

“The other team was not handling things with a lot of class, quite frankly,” he said.
https://lsutigerswire.usatoday.com/2021 ... -behavior/

[VUinFL]

the deplorable behavior I referred to relates to the many other actions not the storming of the field because they finally won after over a decade of losing to Bama. Deplorable, for example, is raining bottles on the field with an unfavorable referee call (the kind we get all the time from SEC refs) https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ting-call/ in football

Shortly after the series hosted in the Lindsey Nelson Stadium, Mainieri says in an interview his team played in “an extremely hostile environment.” He goes on to say the fans and players were “nasty” throughout the weekend.

“The other team was not handling things with a lot of class, quite frankly,” he said.
https://lsutigerswire.usatoday.com/2021 ... -behavior/

I'm not trying to erase prior infractions, I'm just saying that nothing happened on Saturday that should bring prior offenses back to the surface...huge game, huge win, huge celebration, hooray SEC football.

[DonYates]

The last time I was there they had loudspeakers placed right by the Vandy band so they could keep the Spirit of Gold from even being heard.

[thefan]

Fines are meaningless for the institutions with enormous funds and a more realistic deterrent for those not so endowed. If the NCAA really wishes to correct the perceived problem then the most effective penalty would be reducing scholarships. Fines won't get the attention of powerhouses, scholarship reduction would! Personally, UT emotionally nauseates me but I don't see much harm in a crowd with a reasonable demeanor storming the field (not implying UT fan base has such). However, wish those who gleefully tear down goalposts be required, within a reasonable time, to reimburse for property damages!

[Mrcommodore]

These fines are ridiculous really. If they are so concerned about this happening then the money should be spent on something which would actually stop it from happening. But there is no way you were going to stop the stadium from emptying on to the field in a situation like this. Therefore the fine is mere window dressing from the SEC office. If they want to get serious about it then they would take that fine money and make the university higher triple security at the next similar game. Or build a fence right in front of the first row. Or put some monstrous temporary chain link fence around the inner field. It still would not stop the crowd from coming on a game like Alabama but maybe it would for some lesser games.

[VUinFL]

Alabama v UT 2024