CORRECTION: This article was corrected on Oct. 21 at 10:09 p.m. CDT. It previously stated that students were turned away from Vanderbilt’s game against Virginia Tech at the door and in the concourse. This is incorrect. Only the student section entrance was closed after the student-section had reached capacity. Fans were not denied entry to the game itself.
At Vanderbilt Football’s first game of the 2024-25 season, I sat in the press box and watched the student section fill to the brim. This occurrence hadn’t happened once in recent memory. In my time at Vanderbilt, the student section has been traditionally small, filling just a few rows — despite an encouraging 5-7 season in 2022 that featured a home upset over Florida. So, along with everyone else in the press box, I was stunned. A fellow writer told me that the student section was so full that they stopped allowing students in, so I tweeted about it. Within hours, hundreds of thousands of people had viewed the tweet and it gained traction from national media outlets.
Some chalked the turnout against Virginia Tech up to the “first game effect,” when everyone, especially the first-year students, show up for the first game and never again. Little did we know that the tide had turned. This student support — much like the team it was cheering for — was different, and the win over Virginia Tech was just the beginning. After that game, head coach Clark Lea commented on the massive outpouring of student support.
“I want [FirstBank Stadium] to be sold out with people in black and gold,” Lea said. “My understanding is that [Vanderbilt] had to turn students away [today]. That is an incredible statement, and I want to thank our student body for showing up and supporting this team. That means a lot to me.”
Against a lesser opponent in Alcorn State, the stadium was once more filled with black and gold. Again and again, students and the rest of Commodore Nation showed up and showed out, culminating in a historic 40-35 win over the then-No.1 Alabama Crimson Tide on Oct. 6.
I arrived 40 minutes before kickoff as the student section began filling up on that fateful day. The stadium might have been checkered in mostly crimson red and white, but the student section was louder than any. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the home crowd gave the Commodores a boost all night.
I was in awe as I walked onto the field after the game and saw the goalposts torn down. That moment was a long time coming for the university, its football team and the city; that day, the students were the 12th man.
Walking away that night, one thing was clear to me: Vanderbilt students are ready to make FirstBank Stadium an environment that leads to success, upsets and more incredible moments. It seems like the administration — despite saying that it’s ready to — is not truly prepared to help create that environment.
This makes me despondent for the university, the students and the student-athletes. We all deserve to see and support a successful football team.
Increased investment but shrinking seats
After a disappointing 2-10 season in 2023 — following an encouraging 5-7 season the year prior — there was an overwhelming sense that Vanderbilt Football was immensely behind in the NIL landscape. So, the administration spent millions this offseason to attract the talent needed to win in the SEC to campus. That’s the first part of creating a successful team.
According to Vanderbilt’s website, non-transferable student tickets are permissible in Sections P and part of Q in FirstBank Stadium. This is supposedly the one section of the stadium designated solely for students. Still, these sections usually have a non-student presence and seats are often available on websites like TicketMaster and StubHub.
There’s another catch. Half of Section P is blocked off by metal barriers due to construction in the South End Zone. During a year of record attendance, Vanderbilt has also made the student section smaller.
This is not Vanderbilt’s first time limiting its student presence at games. In 2022, amongst a spike in COVID-19 outbreaks, students were barred from attending games at Memorial Gymnasium for nearly a week. Seats in the student section were still sold to the general public and stadium capacity was 100%. Athletics alienated students and kept them from supporting the Commodores’ basketball teams.
These actions are counterintuitive; what’s the point of spending millions of dollars if you give your biggest fans a minuscule portion of the stadium to cheer on their new and improved team?
Turning away students
Vanderbilt has now twice turned away students seeking to enter the game at perhaps its most pivotal games. In its first game against Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt closed the entrance to its student section after it reached capacity and the line to enter was backed up into the concourse. Vowing to fix the issue, a statement was issued before Week Two giving students alternative tickets to other areas of FirstBank should Sections P and Q fill up. This solution worked against Alcorn State, where there was a smaller opposing fanbase and many students sat with their parents; it did not work on full-capacity crowds like Alabama.
The weather in Nashville was unseasonably hot for the Alabama-Vanderbilt game, with temperatures reaching into the 90s. Decked out in black and crammed together in the student section, students could feel the heat in Sections P and Q. People were getting carted off by the medics for heatstroke before the coin toss. Shortly before the first quarter ended, I squeezed my way back to the concourse ramp to get some water. I was met by police officers telling me that I would forfeit my seat and be denied re-entry if I walked past them.
I crowded my way back to the student section, defeated and incredulous (and thirsty), stunned that students were being fenced into this tiny space. Nonetheless, I refused to miss the rest of the game, so I stuck around and hoped for an early sunset.
It wasn’t just me — other students tried to exit the student section to get food and water or go to the bathroom and returned empty-handed. Some students simply had enough and decided to leave. Can you blame them?
Halftime was dreadful. When band members returned to their seats for water and Gatorade, students sitting nearby begged to buy refreshments from them. Although stamps (which permit re-entry to the section) were promised to students in the stands via text in the first quarter, they were not distributed until the fourth quarter when the sun had already set and the stadium had cooled.
Vanderbilt issued another statement on Oct. 17, assuring students that the alternative ticketing policy would be in place for its Week Eight matchup with Ball State. This statement was eerily similar to the one released before the Alcorn State game in Week Two. New policies promised stamps would be given upon entry and required a student ID to be shown when using a student ticket.
These methods may work against schools with smaller fanbases, but they won’t work for SEC schools with tens of thousands of fans following them. We saw this firsthand when the Crimson Tide brought too many fans and confined Vanderbilt students solely to their space.
Official information has yet to be released, but this coming weekend will almost certainly be a sellout, as it was against Virginia Tech and Alabama. Texas fans already took over Michigan’s “Big House” — the largest collegiate football stadium in the U.S. If they swarm FirstBank, there will be nowhere for overflowing students to go. You simply can’t give students alternative tickets if there aren’t any seats to be found for them to fill.
Vanderbilt’s athletic administration has sat back for years and watched opposing teams overrun their home stadium. They have seen sections checkered with the other team’s colors and heard away chants ring loud. Students have been turned away at two games this season, and I worry that this number will only rise against Texas in Week Nine. I hoped administrators would remedy the issue, but these policies show that we’re getting more of the same. What alarms me the most is that this treatment could bring us back to square one, with a meager student presence at games.
Student sections are vital
Vanderbilt Football hosted a number of recruits for its clash with the Crimson Tide. Some of these visiting athletes are among the most highly touted of their class. Furthermore, some were committed to other Blue Blood programs and have since decommitted. Program-defining wins, like against Alabama, represent critical opportunities for athletics to leverage momentum and land big-time recruits.
After Alabama’s defeat, students were on the field with these recruits during the rushing of the field. These recruits saw and felt the excitement, a far cry from previous years when recruits were among just a handful of people standing among the students watching the game. A revitalized student section would go a long way toward rebuilding Vanderbilt Football — in fact, it is its lifeline.
“The atmosphere at Vandy right now is crazy,” Justin Hopkins told On3 Sports after watching the Alabama matchup during his recruiting visit. “It’s electric in here and you can see the energy and shift going on and it looks like a new Vandy.”
A greater presence from the student section will not only contribute to the team’s success now but also create a sustainable, winning culture in the future.
Where do we go now?
To Vanderbilt Administration: Thank you for providing students with tickets and making efforts to improve on shortcomings. But there’s more work to do.
Perhaps the student section’s attendance was far beyond what anyone expected. Athletics’ main goal is to bring in money, and if students aren’t going to attend games, then it makes financial sense to sell tickets to opposing fans.
It’s a great problem to have: Too many people want to come to games.
After each week, Vanderbilt attempts to improve its student section. It must continue to deliver on its promises and allow students to make FirstBank Stadium a better environment for their football team to play in. Vanderbilt can’t keep selling these tickets to the opposition and shrinking the student section.
In fact, it might be time to expand the student section.
This might be a challenge for the rest of this season, but there’s still time for South Carolina, Tennessee, and, most importantly, future years. Right now, a multitude of tickets are still available for both the South Carolina and Tennessee matchups, especially in Section Q. If Vanderbilt took these tickets off the website for sale and allowed students to claim them (and make them non-transferrable), they would be ensuring a student presence while still being able to sell the seats if they are empty. For example, tickets could be made available to claim until a week before the game; upon that week, if they are unclaimed, they can still be sold to the general public and opposing fans.
Getting talented athletes to campus is crucial, but creating a student-friendly environment is just as essential.
Students are what bring SEC schools over the top. Vanderbilt’s students are ready to do what it takes to create a football culture like their conference peers. We’re tired of seeing opposing fans dominate our home stadium. The fans have done their part. Now, Vanderbilt’s administration needs to do its part by allowing the students to turn FirstBank Stadium into one of the SEC’s most formidable road destinations. If the administration cannot rise to the challenge, Vanderbilt may regress to the past and leave Commodore Nation wondering what could have been.
