Texas Tech Ditches First-Come, First-Served Student Policy for Home Football Games

The days of showing up to the Jones-- I mean Galaxy (gonna take some time to get used to saying that), as a student whenever you want are over. The university recently announced that the policy of first-come, first-served students will no longer be used starting this year.

This new policy requires students to book a seat in advance of each home game. But, there's a twist. Let me explain.

They Asked for It

To anyone who disapproves of this change, just know that the decision was made after asking a group of over 800 students about their thoughts, and an overwhelming majority answered in favor of reserving seats ahead of each game rather than a free-for-all each time at the stadium gates.

The university then created the Red Raider Loyalty Program which allows students to guarantee seats at home games. Don't worry, the total student capacity is not impacted by these changes.

Students are invited to download the Red Raiders mobile app where they can reserve and check the location of their seats before kickoff. They just need to use their eRaider login info to get all set up.

How the Reservations Work

Here's how the reservation process works. Take football as an example. Every Sunday during the football season, the window for selecting seats will be open from 7 a.m. to midnight for that week's game. But the seat still needs to be claimed once reservation has been approved. Seats can be claimed until 5 p.m. each Monday.

What happens if you miss the deadline to claim a seat? Students will be placed on a waitlist for the next available seat in this case.

Now here's the kicker. Both Galaxy Stadium and United Supermarkets Arena will have standby lines for students who never claimed a seat. You must arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the game. If you show up after the 15 minutes are up, then the standby line will be allowed in, putting your reserved seat at risk of being taken.

ALSO, students will be assigned points based on their academic standing. Attending sports events also adds points to each student's total. Get this, the more points a student has, the better their odds are at claiming reservations for home football and basketball games.

The points system also determines what happens when reservation requests outnumber student capacity, meaning those with more points will be favored when seating gets scarce.

Finally, students will have points deducted if they fail to scan in after they claimed a seat. So, it's important to follow the steps and be on time!

What do you think? Is this point-based reservation system a good idea? I'm curious to see how it goes during this first year in practice. It certainly will cut down on the chaotic lines of students at each game.