Unruly postgame celebrations that seemingly have become a rite of passage for college students and others in stadiums and on campuses will be among issues addressed at a sportsmanship summit February 20 in Dallas.

The summit is being staged by a coalition of university academic and intercollegiate athletics leaders, including Bowl Championship Series conference commissioners and NCAA Football, which consists of the American Football Coaches Association, the Collegiate Commissioners Association, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and the NCAA.

The need for an open forum became apparent to the coalition after a football season marred by several on-field, on-campus and community incidents following games. The problems are not restricted to football, either. Postgame incidents have been common on campuses after Final Four games, regardless of the outcome of those contests. Campuses and communities at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Indiana University, Bloomington, the teams that participated in last year's Men's Final Four championship game, were damaged when out-of-control students and community members set fires, overturned cars and broke windows. Several injuries also were reported during those incidents. Similar incidents have become almost common following high-profile games in football and basketball over the last several years.

In addition, the longstanding tradition of fans tearing down football goal posts after victories in rivalry games has administrators scrambling to find better ways to protect fans from harm.

"In light of some of the inappropriate and destructive behavior we've seen over the last year in particular, it's important and timely to address the issue of sportsmanship and fan behavior at intercollegiate athletics contests," said NCAA Football Chair and Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive. "The goal of the summit will be to focus national attention on these matters, to identify both the logistical and philosophical issues and open the avenues of communication that will lead to continuing discussion within conferences and on college campuses."

NCAA President Myles Brand applauded the coalition for calling the summit and welcomed the invitation for the NCAA to be a partner in the effort. "The BCS and NCAA Football leadership have taken a very constructive and positive role," Brand said. "We'll be able to proceed much better because of that leadership."

Brand, who was president at Indiana when the Hoosiers dropped a close decision to Maryland last year, said his institution anticipated that there might be unruly behavior on campus whether the team won or lost, and took steps to control it. While those steps may have prevented the problems from being worse than they were, violence nonetheless broke out in Bloomington, even though the game itself was played in Atlanta.

Brand also cited this year's Ohio State University-University of Michigan football game played in Columbus as an example of the need for further discussion. An intense contest under any circumstances, this year's annual season-ending battle between the rivals was highly charged because Ohio State was unbeaten and needed to win to advance to the BCS championship game. Knowing the stakes were high and the fans would be hard to control, Ohio State administrators took every precaution they knew, including the establishment of pregame and postgame activities, working with local community members and media to advocate crowd control, and having law enforcement available and prepared. That approach was somewhat successful on the field, as fans attempting to tear down the goal posts were stopped by members of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, who doused them with pepper spray. But later that night, police in riot gear were sent downtown to contain what had become a raucous celebration. One fire was so large that it closed a major street. Passing traffic on another street was pelted with debris.

"Ohio State did everything we would normally think is the right thing to do under the circumstances and still did not succeed," Brand said. "It's clear that we have an issue we need to address."

Best practices sought

The February 20 summit will include a wide range of participants. Organizers expect a diverse group that includes athletics directors, game officials, law enforcement representatives, college and university presidents, social psychologists and mayors of cities that have encountered problems.

"One of the goals is to explore some of the best practices and strategies currently being used," Slive said. "We asked people to come prepared to participate and make contributions."

University of Georgia Athletics Director Vince Dooley will chair the summit.

"While the summit will talk about the possible contributors to fan behavior, and there certainly are a lot of them, I think more importantly what we want to come out with is some recommended ways to stimulate more desirable behavior among fans," Dooley said. "We need to define what a good fan is and promote that. Let's see if we can find the routes to more desirable behavior."

Slive agreed, saying that the positive aspects of college football, in particular, need more attention.

"We've got great tradition in college football," he said. "We've got great pageantry and color, and great rivalries. We need to protect and promote those traditions."

Unfortunately, one of college football's traditions that has grown for some time is for fans to tear down the goal posts after big wins. And those who participate do so ignoring the safety risks involved, seeing it almost as their "right" to celebrate. Similarly, postgame on-campus incidents have become almost trendy, with one trying to top the previous in outrageous behavior.

"People may think they have a right to act this way because of the game's outcome, but they don't have permission or a right to destroy property or harm others. When they do, they should be held accountable for it," Brand said. "The celebrations may sound like fun, but visiting someone in the hospital who has had a concussion or who has been paralyzed as a result of this behavior isn't fun. We have to take steps to bring some responsible judgment to this issue."

Brand also said there must be an attitudinal shift in how fans -- and players -- view the game environment. He said there is a higher degree of acceptance of inappropriate behavior now that has been cultivated by the media and some communities.

"There are some unfortunate trends in our culture that are giving people permission as it were to do this," Brand said. "There is more incivility, as exemplified in some media shows, and more incivility among people in their treatment of each other.

"But the right answer here is that it's not acceptable to harm others and to harm property. Incivility is just not acceptable, morally or practically."

Some of the trends that may contribute to behavior include a growing sense of teams "protecting their house." The phrase "not in our house" is popular for home teams to use as a motivational tool, but fans sometimes take that to the extreme. Fans also see themselves as a vital part of the home-field advantage and consider uncivil treatment of visiting teams and fans as behavior that may help the home team win. Even some team traditions can lead to trouble. Many football teams have a hammer of some type on the sidelines to represent late-game defensive dominance ("putting the hammer down"). That led to a dangerous situation during a fight after a Division I-AA football playoff game this year when the hammer/symbol turned into a hammer/weapon. Thirteen players were suspended from future championship competition after that incident.

Summit organizers see the February 20 session as an important first step to not only controlling some of those behaviors, but also revisiting some of the factors that contribute to the contentious environment in the first place. Slive said the summit will bring together knowledgeable people who have an interest in resolving the issues and set the stage at a later time for another meeting at which a more tactical plan based on best practices can be put together and distributed to schools in all divisions.

"The concept already has been well received," he said. "People we've invited say they've already been thinking about these issues and that this is the time to initiate discussion. The summit will be just the beginning for ongoing discussions on campuses."