As Saturday approaches, so does NC State’s first home game with spectators allowed. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper eased off COVID-19 restrictions, allowing a 7% capacity in Carter-Finley, approximately 4,000 spectators total. After the tickets were divided, about 2,000 tickets were left for the student body.
While this is exciting news for all students, there is one sentence slated in the NC State Athletics email that puts a damper on the mood:
“For the 2020 Football season, any student that requests and receives a ticket to any game will be ineligible to request a ticket during the request period for a future game this season,” the email reads.
To students, this means you must pick and choose which game you want to see, with many questions also stirring in their minds: What if I don’t get the ticket? What if we lose this game? What if it is too hot or too cold? What if my friends can’t get tickets and I go alone?
In the midst of a pandemic and having health and safety be the No. 1 priority, a football ticket may seem silly, but to many dedicated upperclassmen, especially seniors, this can still be upsetting.
With the majority of underclassmen having been sent home, the policy should leave only upperclassmen eligible for tickets this season, and not having a limit of one game per season.
Underclassmen will return next year, and most will still have at least two years to experience Wolfpack football. Not to mention, they will see a better team, with NC State’s recruiting classes getting stronger and stronger every year, for NC State is expecting three four-star recruits next year. It was the upperclassmen that witnessed the angering losses to Wake Forest and last year’s dreadful loss to UNC-Chapel Hill, of which we shall not speak about again.
The upperclassmen have been present in watching this team develop, and now finally perform. They have witnessed the year and a half long battle on who will be the starting quarterback after Ryan Finley, while underclassmen never even witnessed the Finley era.
In addition, the seniors deserve to watch as many wins as possible, not only will it be the first wins in a while after a 1-7 ACC record last season but it will likely be their last games as students. With seniors graduating in December and May, they will graduate with what is already an underwhelming senior year. They deserve the most experience they can squeeze out of it.
Being a college student at NC State is not something that will last forever. Give the upperclassmen the tickets and allow them to be crazy fans while they still can be.
But unless anything changes, pick your games carefully and make the best out of it.
