It was bad and uncalled for. Majority of that action appeared to come from the student section. Some of that can be contributed to immaturity. Everyone needs to be careful with accusations and painting a broad brush. 99% of the fans there didn’t throw anything. It’s not like it’s never happened before at a sporting event in America.
Just remember that if the team was not a member of the SEC, there would be no fine to worry about. Also, the fans need to remember it was Greg Sankey who kept us from hiring Hugh Freeze as an offensive coordinator.
But from watching on TV the projectiles were coming from all over the stadium. Our band was being pelted with water bottles full of tobacco spit from above I assure you was not the student section.If it has been determined that this trashy behavior was instigated from the student section one option to address it would be to not provide student tickets to, at minimum, the next home game. Sell those tickets on the open market. Fining the university will do nothing as many feel what happened was fully justified, the only way to address it is to take something away from the fans, especially the ones participating in the trailer park frenzy.
Edit: If you really want to drive the point home, sell the student tickets to opposing fans.
"...and it was about that time I realized that it wasn't no giant crustacean from the Paleolithic era standing there lookin at us with those lifeless , sunken eyes. I yelled, I said, 'What do you want from us, Greg Sankey?' And Greg Sankey leaned in and said, 'About tree fiddy.' An she gave him a dolla. Of course he's not gonna go away. If you give him a dolla he's gonna assume you got more!"
Fine will be in the $250K neighborhood. For those people who say “Don’t pay it”, the amount of the fine will be deducted from the rights fee check sent to UTK Athletics from the SEC Home Office in B’Ham. UTK will also have to spend $ on more security in the student sections which will be an additional 100 guards x $25 an hour for 6 hours x 7 games…$105,000 per season for that. Reputational damage will not be quantifiable for the short-term, but expect some modifications to the visiting bench area to resemble soccer stadiums with barriers/roofs as they have in the English Premier League when they renovate the East Sideline at General Neyland.