Alabama athletics director Greg Bryne called for an end to field and court storming on Monday, after Duke basketball’s Kyle Filipowski was injured when Wake Forest fans rushed on Saturday. Byrne, who has long been an advocate for stiffer penalties, said he’d like to see the home team forfeit the just-played game if its fans storm the playing field.

Byrne, speaking Monday before an appearance at the Birmingham Tip Off Club, said he didn’t think fines work to prevent fans from rushing after wins.

“You have two kids run out there, no, but when you have a sustained rush like what just happened the other day at Wake, you lose the game,” Byrne said. “That will get people to stop.”

Since the SEC started instituting fines for field rushes in 2004, Alabama football and Kentucky basketball have seen schools penalized seven times each for storms against them, tied for the highest in the league. Alabama has never received a fine for storming.

Byrne had previously advocated for taking away the next home game in the series from the team that’s fans had rushed. After the Wake Forest incident, he decided to call for even more severe penalties.

The SEC changed its fine structure in 2023 to make a first offense $100,000, a second $250,000 and subsequent violations $500,000 each. The fines are now paid directly to the visiting school.

Given the dangers of field stormings, Byrne said that’s not enough to stop anyone, especially giddy students.

“We had a student manager we thought was gonna lose an eye after a field storm in the last few years,” Byrne said. “He ended up being concussed and the doctors were able to save his eye. We had a doctor, a female doctor, get pushed down and bruised up pretty bad. And something needs to be done about it.”

Byrne said he’d like to see forfeitures for field and court stormings instituted at a national level.

“Kids aren’t going to be in the stands saying “Oh, I don’t want to do this because the school is gonna get fined $200,000,” Byrne said. “That doesn’t enter their mindset. But if they knew the game that they just had been a part of, celebrated a great win that led to that, if they knew that they were going to lose that game immediately, that would stop them.”