I predicted block seating’s inevitable demise last week, and I’ve only had my belief reaffirmed by the supportive sentiments of both students and administrators in positions of power.

But, we need an alternative. Thankfully, with the help of an enormously popular book and film series, I would like to propose and review my first idea.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is the preeminent school for aspiring wizards in the Harry Potter universe. Upon their arrival to Hogwarts, students are assigned to one of four houses at the school by the magical Sorting Hat. These houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff, compete for the House Cup throughout the entire school year.

A house is rewarded points when its members succeed academically and athletically, but a house can also be deducted points for disruptive members.

The University of Alabama can do better than just rewarding a few organizations with the opportunity to sit in a blocked-off section at home football games. A winning organization should want more than to be honored with an unrecognizable distinction for seven or eight home games a year.

Also, with a system more like the one at Hogwarts, the competition to become the highest-scoring organization would be year-round and much more public, unlike the boring one-week judging period we currently have.

For this to include all groups on campus, I suggest three divisions: large, medium and small. Divisions would be based on total membership, and students could only participate points-wise with one group per division.

A points system would provide standards for deducting and rewarding points. A committee would be in charge of monitoring the effectiveness of the points system. Thanks to electronic scoring, points would be updated constantly.

There is no reason that student resumes cannot be managed and verified via an online format, as long as violations to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act are carefully avoided.

The winning groups’ prizes would have to be creative. Three huge banners dedicated to the three division winners could be draped over the Ferguson Center or another major campus building for a year. A Stanley Cup-esque trophy would be a nice, simpler start as well.

Does this all seem crazy? Good, because it is.

Block seating was created to divide our campus at home football games. It then became a reward for groups that performed academically and philanthropically. If we don’t come up with a new system, we may not have an incentive for groups to do well in school or to volunteer next year.

I cannot say whether the groups that have historically sat in block seating would continue to put as much effort into their school and philanthropy work. Let’s face it though; this is the elephant in the room.

Also, as long as the University goes by group membership, it will continue to be exclusive. This type of system assumes that all students can and do join groups. Some students prefer to stick to academics, and some students have to work to stay in school.

The format and function of Hogwarts’ points system is something to look into. But, that the system worked without terribly dividing their student body may be due to Hogwarts operating in a fantasy world.