The internet is full with pictures of how the students stormed the floor when Arkansas defeated Duke in basketball on Wednesday night.
A person can’t go through anyone’s news feed without seeing the floor covered with students. We even ran a photo in Friday’s paper with the students and scoreboard sporting the “Muss Bus” on the screens.
Last season, the Hogs rushed the floor after beating Auburn or Alabama..I can’t remember which one… they are one and the same.
Switching to football, the Hog student body left the stands and rushed the field when Arkansas beat Texas a few years back.
People are happy seeing the great school spirit of the students.
I personally think it is very unnecessary and maybe not all about school spirit.
Rushing the floor or the field is just seen as an opportunity to do something that can get people on camera or social media somewhere. There are selfish motives. “Did you see me on the floor?” There are Snaps with people that are bragging about what they are doing.
My problem is that when we do this it just solidifies the status that we are a lesser program.
What we are saying is that we are behind Duke and one of the Alabama schools. It is saying that we are so far behind them that we have to do something monumental after a win against these programs because they are so much better than us.
This makes us look silly.
Our basketball program is not that far behind. We are a little behind because we still are putting Devo Davis on the floor. That tells me that we are a little behind in certain positions.
The Razorbacks have been to at least the regional semifinals three years in a row and to the regional finals two of those years.
In the same three years, Duke didn’t make the tournament. They made a Final Four and last year they were eliminated in the second round.
Arkansas has a better resume than Duke does over the previous three years.
The Blue Devils have won three national titles in the last 20 years, but the rest of the time they seldom made it past the Sweet 16.
I know that gives Duke a little swagger, but we have been a better program than them for the last few years.
Beating Duke is not floor storming worthy.
Beating Texas a few years back is also not worthy of storming the football field. Texas has done nothing in football. No one will argue with this.
Arkansas has done nothing in football and still doing nothing. No one will argue with that either.
Of course, I am just a man with this mindset.
The University of Arkansas is selling a souvenir ticket with the score of the Duke game on it and the students on the floor.
Arkansas has to pay the $100,000 fine that we have to pay for being “not very smart.”
The next time the students storm the floor, it will be a quarter of million for the action. Then a half a million. Then a million.
Does the University need to tack on another fee for foolish student behavior. We will call it the rushing the floor fee. There is roughly 30,000 students at Fayetteville. If we make it a flat rate fee, do we charge $50 a student.
That would put $1.5M in the bank. That would cover a few incidents.
However, if I was a student and knew that I had paid that fee, I would storm the floor just to get my money’s worth.
I won’t even mention that storming the floor could injure athletes. Wouldn’t someone be proud to know that they ran over Trevon Brazile and ended his season?
Jeff Brasel is the sports and managing editor of the Newton County Times. E-mail him at sports@newtoncountytimes.com or follow him at twitter.com/jeffbrasel.
