Jay Bilas has been a strong advocate against court-storming, but he upped the ante on a potential punishment for fans after a weekend incident involving Wake Forest and Duke.

Over the weekend, Duke star Kyle Filipowski was injured when a Wake Forest student ran into him after an upset win by the Demon Deacons. It’s the latest high-profile incident with Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark also colliding with an Ohio State fan during an incident in Columbus that knocked the wind out of Clark.

During ESPN’s Monday broadcast of “First Take,” Bilas joined the show to discuss court-storming and admitted the media plays a role in promoting the practice. Previously, networks refrained from showing fans on the court or field, but every broadcast currently shows the end-of-game storming when it occurs.

“What does that say about the way we in the media use these images now? We can’t deny that we encourage it. Or at least tacitly approve of it. Everybody has to accept some responsibility for this,” said Bilas. “I don’t think it’s the right thing to allow this, but I know this is going to continue.”

While Bilas says court-storming is not going to change, he does believe there is a way to make the practice end immediately. It involves writing citations and potentially arresting the individuals who partake in the next event.

“Security experts tell (schools) it’s not a good idea to stop the court-storming, that that could cause more problems than it solves. You don’t have to stop the court storming. One time, all you have to do is once they’re on the court, don’t let them off,” Bilas explained. “Just say, ‘You’re all detained’ and give them all citations or arrest them if you want to. And then court stormings will stop the next day.”

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Is there a solution?

Bilas has one solid point: Some restrictions need to be put in place. That goes double for an incident where a player from a visiting team faces an injury as a result.

Still, striking the correct balance between disciplining a program and the fans involved is necessary. And, as Bilas points out, the media coverage plays some role in promoting the event, as do the schools involved. Wake Forest even included a photo from the aftermath in one of its postgame posts on social media.

A real first step in addressing the situation would be to omit showing the postgame scenes on TV broadcasts and in team posts on social media. While that alone would not stop the court-storming, it would at least send the message that networks and universities do not approve of the event, and it also takes away a bit of the limelight from the activity.

Beyond that, the SEC has arguably the strongest penalties in place for court/field storming, and teams in the league have shown no concerns in paying the fines for iconic victories. Furthermore, the NCAA is battling its own set of issues and likely does not have the time (or interest) to address the matter on a national level.

In the meantime, fans do maintain a responsibility to act respectfully if they approach the playing surface, and some level of punishment should be in place in the event a player is injured.