Update: SEC Still Fines LSU $250,000 For Rushing Only Portion Of Field After Beating Ole Miss
BATON ROUGE - You have to give LSU fans credit.
They only half-ass stormed the Tiger Stadium field Saturday night after the unranked Tigers' 45-20 toppling of No. 7 Ole Miss. It was just a partial storm, not a perfect storm as at Tennessee last week, because this wasn't nearly as significant of a win. And it was just Ole Miss.
But nevertheless, the Southeastern Conference office fined LSU $250,000 on Sunday - as previously reported by OutKick - because it was LSU's third violation of the SEC's access to competition area policy. The most recent violation happened after unranked LSU upset No. 2 Georgia, 36-16, in 2018 at Tiger Stadium when fans stormed the entire field. LSU's first violation of this policy happened in 2014 when No. 24 LSU (6-2) shocked No. 3 and 7-0 Ole Miss, 10-7.
The victory over Ole Miss Saturday was huge for the LSU program as it has been a bottom feeder the last two years after winning the national championship in the 2019 season with one of the greatest years in college football history as the Tigers beat an NCAA record seven top 10 opponents.
But LSU plummeted to 5-5 in 2020 and to 6-7 last year for its first losing season since 1999. Its sideline looked like a high school team's with a depleted roster of 39 scholarship players in a 42-20 loss to Kansas State in the undercard Texas Bowl just last Jan. 4.
And on Saturday night, LSU beat a top 10 team at home for the first time since 2019 and entered the SEC race for the first time since that season at 6-2 and 4-1 by tying Alabama (7-1, 4-1) and Ole Miss (7-1, 3-1) for the West lead.
The Tigers jumped to No. 18 in the Associated Press poll on Sunday, though the Rebels strangely stayed ahead of them at No. 15.
LSU tailgaters near Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., posted this sign on Saturday before the Tigers showed No. 7 Ole Miss who was boss in a 45-20 win. Photo by Glenn Guilbeau of OutKick.
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But it was still just Ole Miss. LSU has been Ole Miss' daddy for decades, much like Alabama has been LSU's daddy for decades. The Rebels' win over LSU last year broke a five-game losing streak to LSU, which is 10-3 against Ole Miss beginning in 2010.
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The Rebels were supposedly a great team coming in, but LSU fans are still not accustomed to storming the field against Ole Miss. that often. That is usually seen as beneath them. After wins over Alabama, yes.
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And that explains why this was not a field "storming" Saturday night. The fans only covered just over a third of the field on the student section side with only a few venturing past midfield. These young kids obviously don't get it. And they were sort of slow getting there, too.
It was more like a walk-on than a rush from the Gates of Hell, which is what we saw after Tennessee vanquished Alabama, 52-49, on a storm-off field goal last week for the Vols' first win over the Tide since 2006.
And they didn't even topple the goalposts at LSU.
This is what a true storming of the field looks like. This happened after Tennessee beat Alabama, 52-49, last week at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville for the Vols' first win over the Tide since 2006.
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It was like LSU's fans were saying, 'OK, good win, but we're really just getting started. And this is freakin' Ole Miss."
Hell, LSU has now beaten Ole Miss the last seven times the Rebels have come to Tiger Stadium. Ole Miss' last win here was in 2008.
LSU is also very used to reminding Ole Miss that it is its daddy just when Ole Miss is starting to think it is too big for its britches. LSU's win over Ole Miss Saturday marked the fifth time that the Rebels' first loss of a season came at the hands of pop. That previously happened in 2014, 1961, 1959 (Billy Cannon's Halloween night punt return) and 1958 when LSU won the national title.
Now, if LSU beats Alabama in Tiger Stadium on Nov. 5, that could be a true, 100-yard field storm.
Still, the SEC went ahead with its $250,000 fine. Tennessee got slapped for $100,000 for that last week. LSU is getting fined more because it has been more of a repeat offender than Tennessee, which clearly got its money's worth last week.
The SEC 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."
Sadly for LSU's fans, they did not get their fine's worth - only going partially down the field. Had their students known LSU was still going to get a $250,000 fine for its partial storm, maybe they would have put more of an effort into it.
The fines from teams paid to the SEC for breaking the league's field policy go into an SEC graduate scholarship fund.