Barring the completely unexpected, West Virginia’s football team is winning Saturday night and punching its ticket to the national championship game.

May God help Morgantown for what may come next. I can see the stadium from where I live. I’m scared to death to walk home after the game.

There should be no couch burnings and no rioting and looting throughout town. Sadly, it’s probably going to happen regardless of whatever preemptive measures the university and the town might take.

What I and many others wonder about is the celebration at Mountaineer Field. This has the potential to be the most magical night in the university’s history. There’s really no arguing that. What we don’t know is what will be the memory.

There will be tears, but will it be from the emotion or the pepper spray?

As one e-mailer said:

… it all started with Va.Tech in 2003 and the ridiculous pepperspraying of the crowd.  Now we’ve forgotten how to be a crazy crowd, and that’s called behavior modification.  It worked, but too well.  Now is the perfect time to make amends.  Crowds rush the field at games every week.  Very few are injured.  Who has more of a reason than our students do this week?  Please don’t embarrass us on national TV by having too many cops, police dogs and clubs present on the sidelines for the entire game and then come up with a plan to allow the students on the field in an orderly way to celebrate the most important victory in Mountaineer history with the team, there fellow students.  Today in the Morgantown paper, officials are saying they will not allow anyone on the field after the game.  Please, let’s all figure out a compromise before it’s too late.  

Well put, I thought.

The fans have a large, large say in this. Their behavior certainly determines what happens after the game. Do they do what’s right and stay in their seats and cheer for ever and ever? Or do they do what’s understandable and mark the occasion by rushing the field?

I don’t think there’s any stopping the fans from rushing the field. I’m not encouraging it, but I wouldn’t be outraged either. This type of event just doesn’t happen here and virtually no reaction would surprise me. The University has tried to prevent a rushing of the field with e-mails and advertisements warning everyone not to do it. This from Thursday’s The Dominion Post:

Ken Gray, WVU vice president for Student Affairs, said allowing fans to celebrate on the football field after the game is unsafe, and an idea the university will not entertain. 

“A ticket to the stadium is a ticket to a seat, not a ticket to the field,” Gray said, pointing out that the team still has a game to play after Saturday. “It would be a shame to have one of our players injured by [fans] charging the field.” 
 

True. No matter how much security is on hand, though, they’re outnumbered. No matter what’s been done to prevent the rush, the fans will believe they have a right to do it.

It’s happening. I won’t argue this.

The issue, to me, at least, is what happens next. As much as the fans have to do with this, I really believe security has teh larger and greater responsibility. Let’s agree security takes down the goal posts and protects them aggressively. We can accept that, not because it’s right, but because WVU has made it perfectly clear it is not losing goal posts. 

So the fans rush the field and ignore the goal posts. What does security do? Do they do everything to keep people off the field? Do they pop pepper spray? Do they start elbowing people in the face? Do they release the hounds?

Or do they simply accept their fate? Do they let people rush the field? Do they scowl as people pass by, but let it go and make sure things don’t get totally crazy?

Is the memory that WVU wins and everyone celebrates peacefully or is it that WVU wins and there’s another incident on the field. Does WVU prevent a celebration or prevent a disaster?