If you were to ask a knowledgeable Mississippi State football fan to name the school’s greatest win, it’s almost certain the answer would be when Mississippi State defeated top-ranked and unbeaten Alabama with a dramatic goal-line stand at Memorial Stadium in Jackson on Nov. 1, 1980.
The magnitude of the win was unquestionable. Students returning to campus that Sunday formed a huge mob that paraded around campus, ultimately arriving at the home of the university’s president, James McComas, where students urged McComas to call off school the next day. He didn’t.
That spontaneous gathering came more than 24 hours after the game had ended.
Yet remarkably, only a handful of fans descended onto the playing field at Memorial Stadium in the immediate aftermath of that epic win, probably because only a portion of the student body had made the drive to Jackson.
Saturday night in Starkville, thousands of Mississippi State fans, mostly students, poured onto the field after Mississippi State’s dramatic win over 12th-ranked Arizona State.
MSU will pay dearly for that.
The SEC’s rules forbidding fans from rushing the field after a game carry a $500,000 fine for the host school. Prior to this year, a school’s first offense was a $100,000 fine (Ole Miss was hit with that fine after beating Alabama in 2023). A second offense carried a $350,000 fine (Ole Miss got that fine after a win over Georgia last year). All subsequent instances carried a $500,000 fine. The SEC did away with tiered fines this spring and Mississippi State is the first to suffer from the change.
Ostensibly, fining schools for incidents where fans rush the field is a safety precaution. It also protects the conference from liability in any personal injury case that might emerge from such a situation.
But it should be clear by now, that these fines do not prevent fans from storming the field after a momentous win.
A $100,000 fine didn’t prevent it. A $350,000 fine didn’t prevent it, either. It’s likely that Mississippi State won’t be the only school to swallow a $500,000 fine for very long.
These are not choreographed or scheduled events. No one is running a cost/benefit analysis of field storming. You won’t find a budget item for field rushing, either.
These are wild, joyous and spontaneous reactions, one of the things that make college sports fun.
And if any school’s fans could be forgiven from engaging in such a spectacle, it’s Mississippi State.
When beloved coach Mike Leach died unexpectedly in December of 2022, it cast a pall over the school, its football program and its football fans that seemed to have lasted an eternity with no relief in sight. The 2023 team finished 5-7. Last year, the Bulldogs went 2-10 in Jeff Lebby’s first year. Of that two-year span, the Bulldogs won just one of 15 conference games and lost to Toledo, for heaven’s sake. Heading into this season, the Bulldogs were predicted to finish dead last in the 16-team league.
So when the defending Big 12 Champions and National Championship semifinalists Sun Devils arrived in Starkville, there was hope, perhaps, but few expectations.
That stunning reversal of fortune after two years of misery was the spark. The way the Bulldogs won lit the fuse.
If MSU had won the game by two touchdowns, there would not have been such an emotional outburst. Fans would have had plenty of time before the game’s end to rationally process those emotions.
It didn’t happen that way.
Instead, the Bulldogs coughed up a 17-0 lead to fall behind 23-20 with less than two minutes remaining. MSU fans are all too familiar with that script, of course. But then the unthinkable (for MSU fans, at any rate). The Bulldogs struck for a long TD pass with just more than a minute to play to take the lead and secure the improbable win.
When the final seconds ticked off, an explosion of euphoria rolled through the stands and onto the field. There was no rule, no threat of a fine that could have turned back the masses at that point. For many of those who celebrated on the field, it will be a lasting and cherished memory.
The SEC will collect a half-million bucks for this offense, but it isn’t likely to prevent the practice of storming the field after an epic win.
I don’t suspect that Mississippi State officials are all that upset about the fine. For all the Bulldogs and their fans have endured, it’s a small price to pay, even at $500,000.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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