Auburn's men's basketball team is coming off its second consecutive win over Kentucky, only the third win over the Wildcats in the last 36 tries at home.
This year’s team, 23-3 overall and 11-2 in SEC, is a far cry from the 4-14 conference record predicted at SEC media days. They are considered by many to be the most surprising team in the country this year.
As the list of achievements continues to grow for Auburn basketball this season, so do the lines for students to get into the games. Lines have progressively gotten longer as the Tigers have climbed the rankings.
The Athletics Department said student attendance is up overall – the student attendance record was broken this season at the Ole Miss game with 3,392 students scanned in.
The matchup with SEC rival Kentucky was expected to bring some of the longest lines Auburn Arena has seen. The Athletics Department sent out an email to all students the morning of the game saying line-up time would officially started at 3 p.m., five hours before the game tipped.
This, however, did not deter Chris Jobe, junior in accounting; Jacob Patterson, freshmen in social science general education and a handful of other students from arriving early.
With
Patterson and Jobe said the lines started to get noticeably long
Jobe said he was fortunate that all of his classes were in the morning, but others, including Patterson, skipped their classes.
“Bruce said it was okay to skip class,” Jobe said joking with friends.
Students have been gradually increasing the amount of time they are willing to wait in line.
Caleb Booker, junior in business analytics, said he
“Honestly, it’s a principle thing to me,” Booker said. “If we’re going to try to become a basketball school, we need to start adopting things that other basketball schools do even if other students don’t get out here earlier, we need to start doing it to kind of set that precedent.”
According to the Athletics Department, they are fully staffed to ensure bag checks and ignited card scans are as quick as possible.
Jobe said he thinks the process could be quicker, however. He believes the staff takes too long to check ignited cards.
“Don’t spend two hours looking at each little name,” Jobe said. “’What’s the ignited card number?’ It’s like, ‘I don’t know.’”
Patterson said he thinks the process of checking the face on the ignited card takes too long. He said
“The way I see it, though, as long as you have a card, they should let you in,” Patterson said. “I mean it’s a free game.”
Booker said he doesn’t think the University should do anything to combat line lengths, but they could do something about preventing cutters.
“I mean, ultimately, that’s going to be a problem anywhere," Booker said. "But I know a lot of people who have been waiting longer than people who I’ve seen cut, which is not cool because what happens is you get people at the front who don’t care as much, which is bad for the sport because they’re not as fanatical.”
The student section is limited to a capacity of 1,200 people. This limit has been met well before tipoff in the most recent games.
When capacity is met, students are allowed standing-room only at the drink rails in the 100 and 200 levels.
Most students have been able to get into the arena, even if it is standing room only.
Logan and Landon Henry, sophomore twins in chemical engineering, were not able to get into the LSU game after waiting in line, though.
They said a couple of people were holding up the line because they did not have ignited cards that belonged to them.
“The (lines) need to get longer, sooner,” Booker said. “Any
There is no sign that the lines will shorten as the Tigers’ success continues with the win on Wednesday.
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