The student sections of college football games are frequently targets of derision for coaches, players and fans.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban, for example, has occasionally blasted the UA student section for leaving games early. In 2013 the problem got so bad that the university temporarily suspended block seating privileges for 20 student groups.
“My sense of it is, I always say the fans are a part of the team,” Saban told the Anniston Star. “Everybody else should have the same sort of commitment. You don’t have to do the work all week, you don’t have to practice, you don’t have to come in at 7 in the morning and leave at 11 at night, you don’t have to do any of that stuff.
“All you have to do is come to the game, drink beer, do whatever you want, party in the parking lot. I’ve never been at a tailgate in my life. All I’m asking is that you just come and have fun and stay for the whole game.”
But this week, it is the Auburn student section that is coming under fire from one of its own.
After the Tigers’ 29-13 Iron Bowl loss this past weekend, Mark Edward Morris took to Facebook to express his frustration with some of his fellow Auburn students, who apparently had so little hope their team would win that they not only did not show up to the game, they went a step further and sold their tickets to Alabama fans.
His full rant can be read below:
Dear Auburn student body,
While I know most of you may still be grieving a rather disappointing season, I would like to bring up a very important issue related to this group.
Upon walking into the stadium yesterday, I realized that there were heinous amounts of tacky houndstooth and Crimson that lied in my gorgeous orange and blue student section. These Crimson clad miscreants had somehow slid their way into what some may refer to as hallowed ground. And I thought to myself, how? How could Cleetus and his cousin-wife somehow manage to infiltrate this place of cheer and wonderment.
Then I realized. MY OWN STUDENT BODY IS SELLING THESE TICKETS TO ALABAM FANS. In a show of utter disrespect and disregard, you turned our student section into a place of incestuous relationships and lawlessness.
Now I’m never going to limit your capitalistic freedom of selling whatever item you want to whoever will give you the top dollar. But let me ask you this, would you sell crack to a crack addict? Would you sell a pair of steel toed boots to a notorious puppy kicker? Certainly not!
So Auburn student body, I urge you as you go forward with your Auburn careers, please, let’s keep our student section beautiful, and let’s make Auburn great again.
War Damn Music City Bowl,
Mark Edward Morris
Class of 2017
(h/t SDS)
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.