Guidelines for Rushing the Field/Court

Tonight I was watching the terrific college basketball game between #3 North Carolina and #4 Wake Forest. While it was a very close, Wake maintained a slight edge all night, led by the strong play of guard Jeff Teague who dropped 34, which led to a 92-89 triumph. Beating North Carolina is a great achievement even though the Heels lost their perfect season to BC last Sunday night. However, this victory does not allow Wake Forest to rush their own court for three key reasons.

1. Wake Forest is the #4 team in the country. Rushing the court is reserved for teams who are pulling off large-scale, unexpected upsets at home. When you are #4 in the nation, you should not be an underdog by more than two/three points at home even if you are playing a higher ranked team. A game where the line is that close is an instant no-no for rushing the court.

2. Wake Forest is still undefeated. Usually when a team rushes the court, they have had a somewhat difficult season (or past in general) and their grand upset is the key turning point for the program (acceptable situation would be Michigan beating Duke). Wake has been having one of their best seasons in the program's history, and they have not experienced any suffering that is a needed pre-condition for rushing the court.

3. Tonight was their first game in the brutal ACC. Wake still has 15 more games left in the conference after tonight's opener. Having taken the thunder from UNC, Wake now has a huge target on their back. Rushing the floor just gave even more reasons for opponents to get fired up to play them. If you do not believe Wake is going to have more difficult games next week at Conte Forum vs BC and at Littlejohn Colliseum vs Clemson, you do not understand the ACC. Even though Wake is a good team, I'll be very surprised if they are still undefeated at this point next week.

Below are my guidelines for rushing the court at a basketball game. These same rules apply for college football.

a. If you are not ranked, and you defeat a Top-10 team.
b. If you are ranked 21-25, and you defeat a Top-5 team.
c. If you are ranked 11-20, and you defeat #1.
d. You beat a bitter, higher-ranked arch rival that you have not defeated in a while (I know its vague, but a while depends on the situation)
e. You beat a higher-ranked team at the buzzer.
f. You win the conference championship in college football or if the college basketball conference hosts its conference tournament and the home teams win a bid to the Big Dance.

If you meet one or more of the six criteria listed above, go ahead and rush the playing surface. Personally, I rushed the field at the Nip when 5-5 (6-5) UC beat an undefeated #7 Rutgers 30-11 in November 2006. That game signaled the key turning point in the rise of Cincinnati football, which has now gotten to (and sadly lost) a BCS game. It was a very fun experience, but its one that we need to keep special. By limiting rushing the field to these six occasions, it will remain something special. However, we need to stop teams like Wake Forest from ruining this tradition.