The 2025 season is yet to pull up the curtains, but college football programs are already losing their sleep thinking about their fans’ code of conduct on the field. A few days back, the Clemson Tigers caught side eyes after piloting alcohol sales in its athletic venues. Now, this is a major reason for concern given the incidents of fans storming the gridiron that reigned the 2024 season. Before things go out of hand, Missouri Tigers president Mun Y. Choi and AD Laird Veatch came with a plea to Eli Drinkwitz’s program’s fans.

When it comes to Drinkwitz’s Missouri, compromising with conduct is a BIG NO-NO. Back in 2016, the Tigers fired defensive line coach Jackie Shipp. The then-Missouri head coach, Barry Odom, shared that the reason behind Shipp’s firing was due to an “internal matter where his conduct didn’t meet our expectations for coaches.” This time, not the coaches. But the Tigers dished out a warning for the fans.

Choi and Veatch’s joint statement started with, “Dear Tigers, As we get ready to embark on another thrilling year of Mizzou Football, we wanted to highlight a very important topic: field rushes and fines.” They mentioned it in clear words that the Missouri fans will no longer be allowed to rush the field. The Missouri officials came with a request for the fans to make it a healthy celebration from the stands; they are allowed to celebrate outside the venue. But they need to keep one thing in mind: they need to stay off the field after games. And what will happen otherwise?

The repercussions are bound to be “costly.” As the Missouri officials highlighted, “If we rush the field, we will be fined $500,000 by the SEC, and that money goes directly to our opponent. In this era of revenue sharing, we cannot afford – literally or figuratively – to give our opponents a large sum of money.” Last season comes off as the biggest reminder for the Tigers on how ugly consequences come with fans storming the fields. 

In October 2024, the Vanderbilt Commodores achieved something they must not have imagined in their wildest dreams. A 40-35 victory over the then-top-ranked University of Alabama. Now, that called up for some gaudy celebrations. The Vanderbilt fans stormed the field at FirstBank Stadium and carried the goalpost from the stadium to the Cumberland River. But hardly were they aware of the repercussions. SEC fined the university $100,000 for breaking its policy on access to competition areas, which led the university to look into disciplinary action against students for “unruly behavior.” Right now, the Missouri Tigers are juggling too many things, and they surely won’t want any misconduct hoopla.

Missouri’s fall camp fails to settle the quarterback battle

The Tigers’ head coach lived by the hope that the fall camp would bring an end to their quarterback dilemma between Beau Pribula and Sam Horn. But looks like the plan failed. They both performed at par, making it difficult for Driknwitz to arrive at a conclusion. So what’s the next plan for now? 

On August 20, ESPN senior writer Chris Low tweeted, “Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz has told the team he plans to play both Beau Pribula and Sam Horn at QB in the opener against Central Arkansas, sources tell ESPN, and Drinkwitz wants the competition to continue from there so that he can evaluate both in game action.” 

While Missouri can still take care of the quarterback dilemma, something is not in its control. It’s indeed a happy moment for the Tigers fam. Their AD Veatch announced that the program has sold more than 40,000 season tickets for the 2025 season. He even sent out a note of gratitude to the fans. 

“First of all, special thanks to our fans, season ticket holders in particular. We have sold out again, as you all know. So the momentum continues two years in a row, and in fact, we have sold more season tickets and faster than we did last year, which is pretty remarkable in the big scheme of things,” said the Missouri AD. Along with this, he confirmed that the Tigers are “closing in on $100 million” of their $125 million goal, and that’s no small feat. But with big ticket sales numbers come big responsibilities. Can the fans handle the craze with dignity?