In short: The new changes to the student football ticket system are a drastic improvement.

The new system for purchasing student football tickets, unveiled by the University and the Student Government Association on Sunday, should cause fewer headaches than the student body experienced last year.

By giving students a different day to purchase tickets based on their UA earned credit hours, the first-come-first-serve basis for allotting ticket packages has been preserved in principle. However, because purchases have been spread over multiple days, the system should be able to handle the traffic. This should prevent the chaos that ensued last year when most of the University’s 28,000 students tried to purchase tickets at the same time. The panic created by crashing servers and virtual waiting rooms should be a thing of the past.

Still, because the way tickets are acquired is being overhauled, communication is important. The SGA and the administration must be aggressive in informing students about the changes so that everyone understands the process. After outlining the new system on Sunday, the University began allowing students to register to purchase tickets on Tuesday. The deadline is Friday. That leaves less than a week to ensure students are informed about the new process, a fairly compressed timeline.

In the future, it should not take until the end of April to announce a system for football tickets. The delay has created a tight window of opportunity for students and has pushed the purchase dates into the summer, which may not be convenient for students who are studying abroad or participating in other programs.

Ideally, these changes would have been unveiled before the start of Dead Week. Still, the SGA was right to take time in making sure student concerns were addressed. Going forward, student and university leaders must remain flexible. The student ticket system is still evolving, and other improvements will need to be made. Making it easier for students to appeal penalties for unused tickets and giving students a way to get off the waitlist if they change their plans for game day are two specific ideas that would make the system easier to understand.

Hopefully, these improvements will open games up to more students and result in more fans sitting in Bryant-Denny to cheer on the Tide.

Our View is the consensus of The Crimson White’s editorial board. Editor-in-chief Victor Luckerson did not participate in this editorial.