SEC levies $250,000 fine on Vanderbilt for court-storming vs. No. 6 Tennessee

Vanderbilt has been fined $250,000 by the SEC after Commodore fans rushed the court at Memorial Gymnasium following Saturday’s 76-75 upset of No. 6 Tennessee.

It’s the Commodores’ second offense under the league’s revised access to competition area policy that was adopted at the 2023 SEC Spring Meetings. Vanderbilt was also cited for fans rushing the field after the football team upset then-No. 1 Alabama on Oct. 5, 2024.

Per league policy, all fines are paid to the opposing program, in this case the Volunteers.

The SEC policy states “institutions shall limit access to competition areas to participating student-athletes, coaches, officials, support personnel and properly credentialed or authorized individuals at all times. For the safety of participants and spectators alike, at no time before, during or after a contest may spectators enter the competition area.”

Financial penalties for violations of the league’s access to competition area policy start at $100,000 for the first offense, then jumps to $250,000 for second offense and $500,000 for the third and all subsequent offenses.

Mark Byington addresses need to prepare for Tennessee fans at Vanderbilt game

Vanderbilt defeated Tennessee for just the second time in the two teams’ last 14 meetings. Moreover, they did so in front of the first sellout crowd at Memorial Gym since 2019.

Naturally, with the game being an in-state rivalry, not every fan in the arena was rooting for the Commodores. Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington expected this and prepared his players for it before the game.

“You had some advice from different people and what I didn’t want is, I didn’t want Tennessee to make a shot and then they hear noise and our guys getting disappointed,” Byington said. “The No. 1 thing we said, ‘We worry about us and we take care of us.’ And I was like, we’re going to have support in there. But we had to almost anticipate — it’s like a neutral environment where it’s going be crowds cheering on both sides.

“It was a great environment. It was fun for, I’m sure they would say the same thing, fun environment. I like to get to every single time we play them where there’s less and less orange in there. Wins help and we got to build it that way. But today our crowd lifted us up and supported us.”

If Byington and his Commodores can keep up their current momentum, they can expect Vanderbilt fans to keep coming back for more. 

Grant Grubbs contributed to this report.