With just a few weeks to go until March Madness engulfs sports fans, the court-storming debate has taken over the discord after Duke star Kyle Filipowski was injured when Wake Forest fans rushed the hardwood Saturday to celebrate the Demon Deacons’ 83–79 win. 

What can schools do to prevent raucous college kids from celebrating big wins in often-compact arenas not equipped with enough security? Monetary fines and other punishments vary from conference to conference, but they haven’t seemed to make much of a difference. Recent fines for court and field stormings in men’s basketball and football include:

• $100,000: LSU basketball (beat Kentucky on Feb. 21)
• $100,000: South Carolina basketball (beat Kentucky on Jan. 23)
• $5,000: Santa Clara basketball (beat Gonzaga on Jan. 11)
• $25,000: UCF basketball (beat Kansas on Jan. 10)
• $100,000: Ole Miss football (beat LSU on Sept. 30, 2023)
• $100,000: Missouri football (beat Kansas State on Sept. 16, 2023)
• $250,000: LSU football (beat Alabama on Nov. 5, 2022)
• $250,000: LSU football (beat Ole Miss on Oct. 22, 2022)
• $100,000: Tennessee football (beat Alabama on Oct. 15, 2022)

But in the two most recent instances of court-stormers putting star players at notable risk, no fines were given out. The ACC doesn’t have a policy for court-storming fines, so Wake Forest was let off the hook. In a separate incident, Ohio State wasn’t penalized when a fan bumped into Caitlin Clark while rushing the court after the Buckeyes’ women’s basketball team beat Iowa last month, because the Big Ten doesn’t fine until a third offense.

Reactions to the Wake Forest–Duke situation have ranged from ESPN analyst Jay Bilas suggesting court-stormers be arrested to Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne saying home teams should have to forfeit the game. Whether any more incidents happen over the next few weeks, policy changes will no doubt be a major discussion point this offseason.

The bankrupt Diamond Sports Group received court approval for two of the three main components of its attempted reorganization. But perhaps the most impactful part of the company’s rebuilding plan remains incomplete and could still present big changes for sports fans. 

The Bally Sports parent, which has spent nearly a year in Chapter 11 protection, gained clearance from a U.S. bankruptcy court in Texas for $450 million in debtor-in-possession financing, certifying a restructuring that was first proposed in mid-January. 

Judge Christopher Lopez also signaled his intent to sign off on a legal settlement in which DSG will resolve a $1.5 billion fraud claim against its parent company, Sinclair Inc. That deal will see Sinclair pay DSG $495 million—a figure projected to be a net cost of about $250 million to $325 million after subtracting tax benefits and other management services payments paid by DSG back to Sinclair.

The refinancing and legal settlement represents a big turning point toward a recovery for DSG after many months of increasing expectations of a potential shutdown of the company, and it also signals that the debtor-in-possession financing will yield a greater return than a liquidation of assets. 

To that end, the developments prompted Lopez to remark at the end of a Monday hearing that it was “a good day, a really good day, for Diamond Sports. … This is another huge step forward in the debtors emerging from Chapter 11.”

About That Amazon Deal 

The last major—and still not finalized—part of DSG’s restructuring is $115 million in bankruptcy exit financing from Amazon, which will receive a 15% equity stake in the regional sports network operator. That deal also allows Amazon to invest an additional $50 million within the first nine months after bankruptcy and receive status as DSG’s “primary partner” to access the RSNs on a direct-to-consumer basis through Amazon Prime Video.

The Amazon agreement, however, is predicated in part on undoing prior deals DSG struck with the NBA and NHL that would return local media rights to those leagues after the 2023–24 season—pacts based on a previous assumption that DSG would be ceasing operations. It’s not yet certain what those leagues, or MLB, intend to do over the long term with their in-market rights currently held by DSG. As a result, how robust Amazon’s slate of live, in-market sports will ultimately be is also still very much an open question. 

While all that has unfolded, DSG recently reached one-year rights deals with MLB’s Guardians, Rangers, and Twins.