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There’s nothing quite like game day on campus during college football season—an occasion when people who do everything in their power to avoid taking classes that start before noon wake up bright and early in the morning and usher in the day by shotgunning the beer they left on their bedside table the night before in preparation.
There are plenty of students who arrive at the stadium bright and early, and when I was in college, I was not one of them, as I cared less about getting a good seat and more about getting a buzz that could sustain me for as long as possible once I strolled through the gates.
As a result, I often found myself departing early from games in pursuit of more alcohol if the contest I attended wasn’t a particularly competitive one, as even the most diehard football fans have to admit there isn’t much incentive to stick around when your team is up (or down) four touchdowns in the third quarter.
When you consider what a dominant force they’ve been over the course of the past decade, you wouldn’t think that Alabama has any problems when it comes to attendance.
However, according to The New York Times, it’s become a concern thanks to the Crimson Tide’s tendency to kick the shit out of their opponents, which has resulted in the stadium emptying out sooner than the school would prefer thanks to fans and students who don’t see any point in sticking around to witness a blowout to completion.
As a result, Alabama is now having students download an app that tracks their location in an attempt to keep them in the seats for as long as possible by giving them “Tide Loyalty Points” (you get 100 for going to a game and 250 more if you can make it until the fourth quarter).
Fans with the most points at the end of the year will be able to use them in order to increase their chances of landing tickets to postseason games that actually matter but the school has received some criticism over privacy concerns, although it claims the app only tracks the location of students when they’re in the stadium.
As a Boston College fan, I’d like to extend my condolences to Alabama for being too good at football. It must be really tough.