By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – As a growing number of prominent voices speak out about the danger of court storming, it’s important to remember how it has reached this point.

The media deserves at least part of the blame for promoting what has now become a national tradition, the latest example being when Wake Forest fans rushed the floor to celebrate a rare home win over Duke in men’s basketball.

This particular court storming has received more attention than usual, however, because Duke forward Kyle Filipowski was injured as he tried to leave the floor with Wake Forest fans racing towards him.

The good news is that Filipowski avoided a serious injury, as did Iowa All-America guard Caitlin Clark when she collided with a fan at Ohio State in January and had the wind knocked out of her.

So, it could have been much worse in both cases, but the concern is that the next time it happens, it will be worse.

College basketball and college football are both flirting with disaster, and if steps aren’t taken to protect the players, and the fans, it’s only a matter of time before something terrible occurs.

The problem is there is no easy or inexpensive solution because it’s so hard to contain hundreds, and sometimes, thousands of fans that have been worked into a frenzy.

One way would be to start fining schools that fail to prevent a court storming, perhaps as much as six figures to help send a message.

Another way would be to increase security, but just imagine how much security it would take to prevent a massive amount of fans from rushing the court, or the field.

This problem could have been nipped in the bud years ago, but too many people seemed to enjoy the phenomenon that was court storming, so it was more celebrated than scrutinized.

The fans loved doing it, and the media loved covering it.

And now here we are with a growing controversy.

Neither the NFL nor the NBA have a problem with fans rushing the field/court, and the threat of being arrested or fined is certainly part of the reason why.

But it goes beyond that as NFL and NBA teams also don’t have student sections.

It has been suggested that court storming should still be allowed, but only on a delayed basis that would give the players from the visiting team a chance to leave the court before the storm occurs.

Yeah, good luck trying to enforce that in the heat of the moment.

Maybe it’s time for the media, and particularly television, to ignore court storming the way it ignores or avoids showing when a single person runs on to the field.

Court storming has sort of been glamorized by the media, and I’ve certainly played my part in helping to glamorize it over the years.

Some of my fondest memories from covering the Hawkeye beat for over three decades has been when fans rush the field at Kinnick Stadium or the court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena to celebrate a monumental win.

The energy, enthusiasm and happiness that is felt during these special moments is extraordinary.

But on the flipside, these moments are also dangerous and it’s probably only a matter of time before something really serious happens.

The situation is dangerous enough with hundreds of bodies in close proximity in a mad rush, but there is also face-to-face taunting that occurs in some cases.

Court storming is a tradition that is rooted in joy and excitement, but it’s now a problem that has to be addressed before it’s too late.