How Iowa avoids ‘scary moments’ during court-storming, field-storming like Caitlin Clark’s collision at Ohio State

IOWA CITY — The Big Ten faced a reminder of the dangers of court-storming last month, and it came in the form of an Ohio State fan running while colliding with the biggest star in women’s college basketball.

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark was, in her words, “blindsided” by the fan who stormed the court while holding up her phone after Ohio State’s 100-92 win on Jan. 21 over the then-second-ranked Hawkeyes.

Court-storming and (in football) field-storming — and the danger that comes with those traditions — are nothing new in collegiate athletics.

“If there was a quick and easy and safe way to stop court-storming and field-storming, believe me when I tell you every institution in the country would have implemented those procedures,” Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz said during Thursday’s Presidential Committee on Athletics meeting.

However, especially after Clark’s run-in with a seemingly-oblivious fan, Iowa and its Big Ten peers have taken added measures to avoid a similar situation from happening again.

“Northwestern was our first road game after that, and they went above and beyond to make sure they were cooperating with our team, our security group that went over with them,” Goetz said after the meeting. “I think everybody will continue to be attentive to that.”

While security for officials and the visiting team remains the responsibility of the home school, Goetz said Iowa has “made some adjustments” with its own security plans at road games as well.

“We were always proactively — and have been particularly in and around women’s basketball — but communicating with them on the ground before we arrived,” Goetz said. “Now we’re advancing a group a little bit earlier to make sure that they’re engaged with the hotel and at the site of competition.”

What Iowa does at its home games to prepare for field-storming, court-storming

Iowa has not experienced a major court-storming or field-storming at a home event since the 2021 football win over Penn State. The athletics department has a plan for whenever it does happen again, though.

Iowa’s strategy is centered on “mitigation as opposed to absolute prevention,” said Marcus Wilson, Iowa’s executive senior associate athletics director for event management and sport administration.

“Our current philosophy at Iowa is it is very difficult to stop these incidents without use of physical force, without compromising the safety of our fans, of our staff, of our law enforcement,” Wilson said during the PCA meeting.

Wilson’s staff has separate plans for a possible court-storming at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and a possible field-storming at Kinnick Stadium. Both have the same “general approach.”

Iowa’s contracted security and law enforcement will “form a perimeter around the playing surface” before the end of a game that has the potential for a court-storming or field-storming.

“The focus is always on the student section,” Wilson said. “And law enforcement can take any enforcement action against any individual who tries to run out before the game and disrupt the game itself.”

When the game ends, Iowa’s contracted security personnel “move into a different position to effectively protect the team tunnels and ensure a safe path exists for the home and visiting teams to exit the playing surface safely.”

“Law enforcement, sworn officers are responsible for escorting the officials, the home and visiting team head coaches and the student-athletes off of the playing surface,” Wilson said.

Iowa also has medical assistance available for any fans who need “immediate care” after the court-storming or field-storming.

Wilson said his staff sees court-storming situations at other schools and often can “find ways to improve upon our plan.”

“We collaborate regularly with our peers across the conference,” Wilson said.

Iowa’s plan is one that it will “continually reassess, reevaluate, update and improve,” but at the end of the day, there is only so much event security can do.

“I don’t think anybody has a plan that’s going to eliminate all risk,” Wilson said.

The Clark collision was perhaps an example of that. Goetz believes Ohio State “had a good plan in place” in the case of a court-storming although that plan obviously did not prevent the unfortunate outcome.

“At the end of the day, I believe all of our peers in the Big Ten are doing everything they can to put together a plan,” Goetz said. “When there's a gap in execution, sometimes you have incidents happen. And obviously this one was a scary one and very unfortunate.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com