If 16th-ranked LSU defeats No. 14 Alabama on an approaching Saturday night in November, and fans at Death Valley respond by rushing the field again, the Tigers' athletic program would have to pay up to $500,000 to the Crimson Tide. The high-stakes rivalry game on Nov.
9 could serve as the latest test of a Southeastern Conference policy on field invasions that was reworked before the previous football season . The goal was to stop such trespasses, but this season has seen a few nonetheless — including at LSU when the Tigers beat Mississippi in overtime on Oct. 12.
LSU had to pay $250,000 to the Rebels. If it happens again, LSU will have paid a combined total of up to $750,000 to rival SEC athletic programs during just this football season. While LSU coach Brian Kelly worries about safety when fans rush the field, he doesn't sound too concerned about the fines — even in this NIL era, when schools are spending more on players than ever and presumably would rather not also be ordered to supplement the athletic budgets of their SEC opponents.
“Those kinds of penalties are probably going to be passed off through administration, and I just don’t see that impacting NIL to the point where there’s a competitive advantage," Kelly said. “I don’t want to sound like I’m advocating, but if you’re winning each week and storming the field, your NIL is going to go up because you’re generating a lot of support yourself,” Kelly added. “I’m not trying to be a wisecracker.
