The University of Alabama has decided to return the favor and give Texas a taste of its own medicine with the seating of their fans and band Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
For games between two SEC teams, the SEC requires at least 2,000 lower-level tickets to be allotted to the visiting team. Texas doesn’t officially become an SEC member until next season, so the SEC’s regulation for visiting tickets will not apply to Saturday’s game against the Crimson Tide. Since Alabama does not have to meet the SEC requirements, it has chosen to do the same thing that Texas did to them last year by putting all 5,000 visitor tickets, which includes band seating, in the upper deck.
"We are able to reciprocate a similar seating arrangement to what we had last year in Austin," Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne told The Tuscaloosa News.
Both Alabama and Texas signed a contract saying that the visiting team would be allotted “4,500 to buy tickets and 500 comps for sale to its followers (including bands).” However, it does not specify where the location of those seats has to be. By leaving out the specification of where the seats should be located, Texas used this loophole to stick all 5,000 tickets in the upper deck to help create a louder home crowd environment. Alabama will use the same loophole Saturday and hope to get a similar result.
The offering of only upper deck seating by Texas is not something new. Back in 2019, LSU visited Austin and received a similar treatment as Texas stuck the LSU band in the upper deck as well.
Last season, Alabama chose not to send the Million Dollar Band to Austin because of the seating location and lack of visiting tickets made available. It has not yet been determined if Texas will send their band or opt not to like Alabama did last year.
No. 3 Alabama will host No. 12 Texas on Saturday in Bryant-Denny Stadium at 6 p.m.
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