I don’t know why fans of so many teams riot so often. I know, however, that the NCAA could stop the riots by severely penalizing the teams the rioting fans support.
Imagine if the NCAA had a rule stating that if a team’s fans riot after a win, the win is automatically vacated; if they riot after a loss, they lose future postseason eligibility. Teams whose fans keep rioting after losing postseason eligibility could be subject to the whole range of NCAA sanctions, up to and including the so-called “death penalty,” whereby the NCAA dissolves the team for one or more seasons.
Imagine if the 2014 riots after UK’s loss to UConn meant UK was ineligible for post season play this year, blowing their chances in this year’s NCAA tournament months before the tournament even started. Imagine if UK’s despicable history of post-game riots put the school at risk of losing their basketball team entirely. Imagine, in other words, if the NCAA took stopping these riots seriously.
No longer would it be a sign of supporting your team to riot after a game. Rather, it would be a massive betrayal, as that behavior could cost the team dearly. The universities would do a much better job of stopping riots before they started. More importantly, the fans themselves would police each other, and stop other rowdy fans to prevent turning their teams’ wins into losses, or losses into catastrophes.
Complete article on my Medium page