Pitch invasion

A pitch invasion (known as a field invasion, rushing the field or storming the field in the United States) occurs when an individual or a crowd of people watching a sporting event run onto the playing area to celebrate or protest an incident. Pitch invasions may involve individual people or capacity crowds. Charges can be called upon to those of the age of 18 or higher, resulting in fines, jail time, and also the bruises left by getting tackled by the police at the grounds.

This is especially common in college football and high school football when a team pulls off a major upset, defeats a major rival, ends a long losing streak or notches a history-making win. Many schools employ riot police to physically prevent fans from rushing the field, a controversy in and of itself. However, with the widespread advent of artificial turf such as FieldTurf, some schools are becoming more lax about students invading the pitch. In the last few years, goal posts are also taken down within moments of the end of the game as a cautionary measure to prevent fans from climbing atop them to cause damage to the standard holding them up, damage to television camera equipment on the posts, and spectator injury. In the National Football League, storming the field usually results in lifetime revocation of season tickets from the holder of them, even if given or sold to another person.

Section 10.5 of the Southeastern Conference By-Laws has a progressive fine policy adopted in 2004 for major sports: $5,000 for the first offense, $25,000 for the second offense, and $50,000 for third and subsequent offenses within a three-year period of the last pitch invasion. In May 2015, the fines increased to $50,000, $100,000, and $250,000 for the first, second, and third plus subsequent offenses, respectively.

After three years without a pitch invasion, a school will have the pitch invasion rule reset to one, meaning that the next pitch invasion will be declared a second violation, and the school will be fined $100,000.

The Kentucky Wildcats have been hit with "the triple" for three football pitch invasions within eleven months:

Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Missouri have been fined $25,000 for second offense violations, but most SEC schools have been fined $5,000. Missouri's fine is notable in that their second violation occurred after only three years as a member of the SEC: both came when supporters flooded Faurot Field after the team clinched a trip to the SEC Championship Game, in 2013 and 2014. Note that in association football, Kentucky and South Carolina have the rule in effect for women's games, but because the men's game is held under the auspices of Conference USA, there is no pitch invasion fine in that sport.

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