Following Ole Miss' upset over Alabama on Saturday, with College GameDay in Oxford for the first time ever, fans stormed the field and ripped down the goal post. Personally, I'm of the belief that it's a right of passage for fans in college football, but my views and that of the NCAA seldom align.
As the goalposts came down I knew that a NCAA fine wouldn't be far behind, but I didn't expect to see Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork completely embrace the moment like he did, even posting a link where the athletic department would be accepting donations for the fine, and to replace the goalpost.
That tweet got over 1,400 retweets and over 1,000 favorites. Something tells me they'll have no problem paying that fine. While the win for Ole Miss was certainly memorable, it was what happened after goal post came down and made its way out of the stadium to the streets of Oxford that caught my attention later that night. A student by the Twitter name Buckner Corso was one of the students who helped the goal post find a new home, and after putting out on Twitter that the goal post made it home, he got a response from the unlikeliest of allies.
While Michigan State AD Mark Hollis spent Saturday scolding students for not staying the whole game against an undefeated Nebraska squad, Bjork shrugged off a $50,000 fine and offered to have the goal post cut up for student...as long as he saved him and Hugh Freeze a piece.
Considering the events of the weekend, I would like to take this opportunity to nominate Ross Bjork as the best (or at the very least, coolest) athletic director in the country.