Not everyone at the University of Florida was celebrating its men's basketball statement win over top-ranked and previously unbeaten Tennessee on Tuesday night.
As reported by Noah Ram of the Gainesville Sun, UF's ticket office allotted 900 student tickets for the game against the Volunteers, the same number of tickets allotted for the two other home games during the students' winter break. But that amount is roughly half of what students can typically access during regular-season home games, with Florida selling the remaining 900 Tennessee game tickets to the general public at $35 apiece.
Many students who returned to Gainesville a few days early and waited hours to get into the O'Connell Center were refused entry, Ram reported, adding that others who took seats in the student section were escorted out by UF Police Department officers as non-students had tickets in those seats usually reserved for students.
Multiple students told the Sun on Tuesday night that they were not informed of the reduced student ticket allotment.
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin addressed the controversy on a radio show Wednesday.
"We would have handled it differently knowing what we know today," Stricklin said. "These decisions were put in place in early November."
Fewer than 200 students attended the North Florida and Stetson games during break, according to Stricklin. The student-section tickets sold to the general public for those games led to sellouts of both.
For Florida's conference games during past winter breaks, the number of students was smaller than normal. For Georgia and Texas A&M two years ago, between 400 and 600 students entered. For Kentucky last season, it was 1,200, but that game occurred just two days before classes resumed.
According to UFPD and O'Connell Center staff estimates, about 300 students weren't let in to this year's Tennessee game. "Obviously we disenfranchised those kids,," Stricklin said.
Stricklin announced Wednesday that the 700 student seats that are situated in the arena's lower bowl would be reserved for students at every conference game, regardless of when it lands on the schedule. He said if it seems like students won't fill the entire 1,800 seat allotment for conference games, the decision to open it up to all will be made at the last minute, not two months in advance.
"You learn a lesson every time you try something and it doesn't work," Stricklin said. "We're going to prioritize students and their attendance at any SEC home game going forward."
