Time for court-storms to leave the building

(This is an updated version of this post.)

AMES – I believe college is supposed to be for the students, first and foremost.

But I've begrudgingly joined the ranks of those who want to see the kids' court-storm taken out of college basketball.

I'd been among those who mock the old fools who grumble about those darn kids rushing the playing floor after big basketball wins. But I've also always been able to dodge the storm without incident or injury – out of sheer luck – when I've sat courtside at Hilton Coliseum for games and the students stormed the playing surface.

I love sitting at courtside, by the way. In basketball, the closer you are gives you a better feel for so much about how a game is going. Fewer and fewer college and pro teams give courtside seats to the press because it's prime real estate for ticket-buyers. I get that, but selfishly don't like it.

What I like a lot less than a primo vantage point from which to do my job is the broken tibia and fibula Randy Peterson of the Des Moines Register suffered Thursday night. That was sad and sickening to hear about. I wasn't that far from him, but never saw it in the postgame chaos. Peterson (@RandyPete) tweeted this Friday morning from his hospital:

Just to be clear, I was not trampled by the crowd, I locked legs with someone,,,,, I think.December 11, 2015

Just to be clear, I was not trampled by the crowd, I locked legs with someone,,,,, I think.

— Randy Peterson (@RandyPete)

But it still was a dangerous situation. Randy is a good friend of mine (and virtually everyone who covers college sports in Iowa, as well as many who are from other states), so this hits home harder for me than had it happened to some student who I'd never met, I admit.

I thoroughly enjoy covering big games at Hilton. The atmosphere is great, the students are great. I like talking to them before the games. Those who camped out for three days before this game just to make sure they got inside the arena and got prime seats – I'd rather be around them than some fat cat donor who acts like the program belongs to him or her.

And Iowa State's in-game atmosphere is as good as it gets. It's just plain fun, and I've seen enough of this stuff to be easily bored when it isn't fun.

But it's time to pull the plug on the court-storming. You can still party hard from the bleachers and you can still have an environment that's as good as it gets in college basketball.

If all court-storms were guaranteed to be safe, I'd lead the charge to keep them. But they aren't, and that's that.

The tradition of a coach buying pizza for the students camped outside the arena, though, that one's got to stay.