Univ of Tennessee fined $100K after fans remove goalposts — school launches fundraiser before next game

Following the University of Tennessee’s thrilling 52-49 win Saturday over the storied Alabama college football program, ecstatic Volunteer fans rushed the field as soon as the game-winning field goal cleared the goal posts to celebrate and… well, the goal posts didn’t live to tell the tale.

The fans tore down the goalposts on both ends of the field amidst their wild jubilation and dumped them in the Tennessee River, according to the school.

On Monday, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) told the NFL — “No Fun Allowed” — to hold its beer and hit the University of Tennessee with a $100,000 fine for allowing fans to access the competition area.

Meanwhile, the university had already launched a fundraiser to replace the goalposts, sharing a link on Twitter that included a hilarious caption.

“Y’all remember how we tore the goalposts down, hauled em out of Neyland and dumped em in the Tennessee River? Yeah that was awesome. Anywho, turns out that in order to play next week’s game, we need goalposts on our field. Could y’all help us out?”

The effort has raised over $156,000 as of this writing, with the school having more fun with the donation options.

Contributors can donate $16 to match the number of seasons since Tennessee last beat Alabama), $52.49 to equal the final score of the game, and as much as $1,019.15, which was the capacity of sold-out Neyland Stadium on Saturday.

Even the school president got in on the fun… but that was before the stick-in-the-mud media claimed he was trying to “shake down” fans to contribute to the cost of replacing the goalposts.

U of Tenn. President Randy Boyd was seen on video celebrating the big win as fans were tearing down the goalposts when someone offscreen asked him, “How much is that going to cost?”

Smoking a big ol’ victory stogie, Boyd replied, “It doesn’t matter, we’ll do this every year.”

One thing is certain, there was some serious celebrating going on in Tennessee this weekend:

Tom Tillison

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