There’s an old adage in sports: Act like you’ve been there before. Vanderbilt may not have heard it.
The Commodores upset No. 9 Kentucky on Saturday 74-69 to improve to 16–4, after being picked last in the Southeastern Conference preseason poll.
It was Vanderbilt’s second top-10 win in the past week, and it ended with students storming the court, just as they did after Vanderbilt took down Tennessee last Saturday.
Conference rules fine schools for storming the court or field, and Vanderbilt, a school known for its academics, has been the SEC’s biggest offender.
In the fall, students stormed the football field after the Commodores beat No. 5 Alabama in what was one of the biggest wins in school history. The result was a $100,000 fine, which went to Alabama, per conference rules. (Alabama earned $400,000 from field-storming fines this past football season, as all three of its losses saw the winning fan base end up on the field.)
A second offense in the same school year costs a school $250,000, and that went to Tennessee. Saturday made the Commodores a third-time offender, resulting in a $500,000 fine, which goes to Kentucky.
That’s $850,000 in court-storming fines Vanderbilt owes from this academic year so far.
The school tried to stop it: Vanderbilt athletic director Candice Lee was seen in Memorial Gymnasium’s student section asking students not to rush the court because of the financial bite it would take on the department’s ability to recruit.
“Let us use the money for NIL to make a great team next year,” Lee said, according to The Vanderbilt Hustler, the school’s student paper.
As third-time offenders, Vanderbilt will continue to get fined $500,000 for any further court-storming fines for the rest of the season.
Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said he has no issue with the court-storming for now, but hopes the program gets to a place where big wins are expected and routine.
“There’s big picture things I wanted to happen around here, and at one point I want it to be where we’re not surprised, and we don’t feel like the underdog in these games, and we’re going into them knowing that our program is good and we expect to win,” Byington said. “We’re not there yet. So let the fans enjoy it. We’ve got to start a GoFundMe page or something to pay fines. We’ll figure it out.”
The Commodores could still recoup all these fines by qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. Teams that make the Big Dance get around $2 million.
