Maybe they need to put a barricade around the court........

I'm sure you've heard by now about how Kansas State students stormed the court after their basketball team defeated Kansas Monday night, resulting in Kansas coach Bill Self being pinned to the scorer's table, and other hazardous things.

Now, they're calling for a stop to what has become a tradition in college sports, particularly football & basketball, where students and other fans will storm the court or field if their school wins against a major opponent. It's been going on for years, and beefing up security isn't going to help. At least, not in the traditional sense.

No, what is needed is for each of the universities' administrations to make it clear to the student body that running onto the court or field, even at the end of the game, is not acceptable. It's expressly prohibited during games in both college and the pros, and even in high schools. Most of the time, the student rush is fueled not by adrenaline or school spirit alone, but, of course, by excessive alcohol consumption. Celebrating is fine if, say, for example, Indiana State, a school that is only famous because of one player (Larry Bird), beat Notre Dame, but because of the safety not only of the players, coaches, & officials, not to mention broadcasters, but those same students and fans as well, there has to be a greater emphasis on decorum. Administrators need to treat the playing field the same as the classroom. Period.

During football season, we've seen how students will tear down the goalposts during these mass celebrations, ignoring the fact that it will cost their school upwards of hundreds, even thousands of dollars, to replace the posts. In basketball season, the danger is greater, and thus, there's a bigger chance of potential litigation against the school if a visiting player or coach is injured, such as what happened at K-State on Monday. We don't know if Self was hurt, but you can imagine there would be more attention given to this discussion if he was seriously injured.

It's one thing if the winning team's players will cut the nets, but leaving it in the hands of a few hundred drunken students? You don't even want to think about it.