When students head to Bryant-Denny Stadium to see the Crimson Tide take on Colorado State in the first home game of the season, they might notice a few changes from previous years. Most notably, students will now be assigned to the upper or lower bowl student section ahead of time.

Chris Besanceney, assistant athletic director fot ticketing and Tide Pride, said the split will help make sure students use the entire student section instead of just overcrowding the lower bowl and avoiding the upper.

“The upper bowl was being underutilized and the lower bowl, at least in some sections, appeared to be crowded,” Besanceney said. “There was an appearance that students were not utilizing all of the seats allocated for student use due to the vacancies in the upper bowl.”

New freshmen will now be sitting in the upper bowl. Of the split-ticket packages containing three or four home games, 2,750 were sold to new freshmen, while 12,700 full-ticket packages were sold to continuing or transfer students.

Will Criswell, a junior majoring in history, said he feels the new system is unfair to the most dedicated fans.

“I see what the University’s trying to do, but I feel like the other system rewarded more dedicated fans, whereas the new one just rewards people who have been here longer,” Criswell said. “I do feel sorry for the freshmen not getting the lower bowl experience.”

Besanceney, however, said he believes freshmen will in fact benefit from the upper bowl experience.

“An additional benefit is to provide an environment for new freshmen to build class unity and learn the traditions and meaning behind being a classy Bama fan through special programs such as the yell crew,” Besanceney said.

For his part, Criswell did admit that he was glad that he would no longer have to fight to get a choice seat.

“I can’t say that I’m not happy about it,” Criswell said. “I don’t have to stress about getting to the stadium two hours early.”

Students sitting at the upper bowl will now enter the stadium at gate 30, while students sitting in the lower bowl will use gate 31. Students will still be able to upgrade their tickets normally, but they will remain in the bowl they were originally assigned. For example, an upgraded upper bowl ticket would remain in the upper bowl, Besanceney said.

To find out which bowl they will be sitting in, students can go online to actcard.ua.edu and check under the MyTicket tab.

“Each student will have upper bowl and lower bowl shown, as well as if they have a ticket and where it is,” Besanceney said. “For example, a student with an upper bowl ticket for this week’s game will see ‘upper bowl 1; lower bowl 0’.

Student tickets also increased in price as compared to last year. Each game is now $10 a piece instead of $5. Criswell said even with the increased price, tickets are still worth it.

“It’s still cheaper than a normal ticket,” Criswell said. “So I still feel like I’m getting a good deal.”

This weekend’s game against the Colorado State Rams will begin at 6 p.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium. To find out if you have a ticket and where you’ll be sitting if you do, go online at actcard.ua.edu.