Rules for Rushing the Court

I love college basketball.  I watch games pretty much everyday.  It's an exciting game full of action, surprises, and upsets.  It's the upsets that everyone loves.  David taking down Goliath.  And those upsets often lead to one of the most common scenes in college basketball: rushing the court.  But it seems like lately everybody is rushing the court.  In my opinion it's getting way out of hand.  Don't get me wrong, I love seeing fans rush the court, but only when it's warranted.  That's why I've decided to lay out my rules for when rushing the court is acceptable and when it is not.

Rule #1 - If your team has EVER won a national championship you should never rush the court.  I don't care how big the win may be.  Your team has a banner hanging in the arena and a trophy on display.  No win is bigger than that.  Stay in your seats.

Rule #2 - If your team is currently ranked in the Top 25, you should not be rushing the court.  If you are a ranked team, that means you are good, and it shouldn't be considered an upset no matter how high the other team is ranked.  If it's not an upset, it's not worthy of court rushing.

Exception: If your team beats the #1 team in the country and no team in the history of your school has ever beaten a #1 ranked team, you are allowed to rush the court.

Rule #3 - If your team has at least a five game home winning streak over the team you are playing, you should not rush the court.  Clearly your team has success against this other team, so it should come as no surprise when you win again.  No surprise, no rush.

Rule #4 - The only time you should rush the court when your team beats an unranked opponent is when that opponent is a team with a pedigree like Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, etc.  These teams are rarely unranked so you won't often have to deal with this, but it could happen.  However, the court rushing should only happen if a win against such a team has either never happened or is rare enough to be considered a shock.

Rule #5 - Winning a conference championship is not sufficient reason for rushing the court.  The exception is if it is your team's first conference championship.

Rule #6 - Just because you won an overtime game, or a five overtime game (yes, I'm talking to you Notre Dame), that doesn't give you a reason to rush the court.  Check the above rules to see if you qualify first.

Rule #7 - Winning a game on a buzzer beater doesn't give you a reason to rush the court.  Yes, I understand that it is exciting, but it happens a lot.  If your team doesn't qualify based on the above stated rules, then stay in your seat and celebrate from there.

If you disagree with any of these rules or feel that I may have missed something, please let me know.  I'm open to discuss this issue.  But I'm tired of seeing so many teams' fans rush the court for no reason.