Football Saturdays in Tuscaloosa are special. There is just something great about waking up early on a game day and getting in the mood for Alabama football.
Hours before the game, students line up outside the gate, hoping to get great seats. Two hours before kickoff, the students start pouring into Bryant-Denny Stadium, but there is always one gaping hole.
Over half of the student section fills up rapidly, but the rest of the student section is nonexistent except for a few guys in navy blazers. Why don’t the rest of the students move into the empty seats?
They can’t. Those seats are reserved for student organizations. You know, those organizations that arrive to the game during the National Anthem and leave before Scott Cochran does his crazy fourth quarter ranting over the PA system.
By the way, to those sitting in S-4 to S-8 (there were a few of y’all left), the band didn’t play “Rammer Jammer” after the Kent State game, but most of you weren’t in the stadium anyway, so what does it matter?
I enjoy sitting about two rows up in S-3; I can see the plays develop from there, and I patiently wait in my seat two hours prior to the game. I can’t sit there anymore, because I’m not a member of Kappa Alpha Order. What did they do to deserve those seats? Absolutely nothing.
They have the same $35 student ticket package that I have. Thank you, SOS committee, for getting the input of the student body on your expansion of block seating. We all know what Coach Saban really wants to see are more empty seats.
I’m sure the players who bust it every day to get an opportunity to play a few snaps in a game like Kent State love looking up to an empty end zone as well. But those seats will be full for the entire LSU game!
Yes, I am bitter, but would the greeks not be bitter if these newly admitted blocks cut into their seats?
I’ve sat in S-3 for more than 2 years, and now I can’t sit there because I’m not a member of the Kappa Alpha Order? It doesn’t make sense. Why expand the block when it is already constantly ridiculed for not being full?
The simplest and fairest way for all students would be for all student seats to be first-come, first-served. Yes, that means you’d actually have to be there for the pregame videos if you want a good seat. Find a logical argument against this, and I’ll be glad to listen.
Finally, I am not pro-greek nor pro-independent. I am for the advancement of the student body as a whole. There’s no reason why we can’t all get along and have one big open student section.
We’re supposed to be pulling for the greatest college football program of all time, but there is always constant division. Open up the seats to all, and maybe we start becoming a student body, instead of greeks and independents.
However, if block seating does continue, at least have an order to it. Maybe try giving the best seats to the fraternities that treat women with respect and view hazing as a childish act. Until then, I guess all I can do is hope.
Conner Norton is a senior majoring in accounting.
