With the Crimson Tide’s date with the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship game looming, this should be a time for students to be excited about cheering on the team. Instead, many students will be watching the game from Tuscaloosa because they didn’t receive a student ticket from the University.
Some students who expected to satisfy the hours requirement were disappointed when they realized study abroad or transfer credits didn’t count for tickets, though the University accepts them for academic credit.
Daniel Gilstrap, a senior majoring in exercise science from Madison, Miss., thought he had a good shot at getting a ticket to the game because of his upperclassmen status. When he did not get a confirmation email from the University about the SEC Championship game, Gilstrap looked closely at his UA credit hours and realized the classes he took while studying abroad in Australia didn’t count towards ticket allotment.
“If you studied abroad, like I did, you can pretty much guarantee you won’t get a ticket,” Gilstrap said. “The 12 hours I took while abroad are what kept me from being in Atlanta this year cheering on Nick Saban and the boys. It’s kind of sad that as a fourth-year senior I don’t even have the option to buy a ticket to the SEC Championship game this year, or any of the bowl games our team has been to since the 2009 season for that matter.”
Gilstrap said he is disappointed that ticket allotment process is not only penalizing him for studying abroad, but rewarding students that don’t graduate in four years.
“I don’t think it’s fair that if you graduate in four years, you most likely won’t get to cheer on the Tide at a game outside of the regular season,” Gilstrap said. “There are a lot of students who take five years to graduate now, and they are the ones benefiting from the current system. It needs to be revised so other students who support the University for four years at least have the opportunity to buy a ticket.”
Kirby Simpson, a senior majoring in marketing from Montgomery, Ala., is also disappointed to not be going to the SEC Championship game.
After attending Auburn University at Montgomery for three semesters, Simpson transferred to Alabama as a sophomore according to his credit hours. According to Simpson, the hours he accumulated while at AUM did not count towards ticket allotment for the SEC Championship game, and is the reason why he won’t be attending.
“While I may not have started at UA as a freshman, I am still a senior and friends with other seniors that got a ticket to the game,” Simpson said. “I feel like I should be in the in-group with them, and we should all be able to attend a game together since this is the last chance we will be able to do so as students.”
Simpson blames the University for distributing the SEC Championship tickets unfairly.
“I think the system is designed to look like everyone has a fair shot at getting a ticket, sort of like a senior privilege, but what the University is actually doing is rewarding those that have paid them the most money in tuition,” Simpson said.
Chris Bryant, assistant director of media relations, said 1,920 tickets were allotted to students by the University, 12 percent of the 16,000 total tickets Alabama had to distribute. Of the 1,920 tickets, 80 percent are given to undergraduate students and 20 percent are given to graduate students. In order to distribute the tickets evenly to undergraduate students with the most UA credit hours, students had to have a minimum of 90 hours from the University.
Bryant said the ticket allotment process was designed by the University with the help of the Student Government Association to distribute tickets amongst students fairly.
“The method was developed and is refined with input and guidance from the SGA in an attempt to distribute tickets to students in as equitable a manner as possible,” Bryant said.
Gilstrap believes the current ticket allotment system is flawed. He suggested the tickets be rewarded to students based on more than just UA credit hours.
“I don’t agree with the process of giving tickets based on UA hours alone,” Gilstrap. “We need to establish a point system where students receive a certain number of points for going to all sporting events. Those students who attend a lot of Alabama athletic events, not just football, should have priority to qualify for SEC Championship and bowl game tickets.”
