 "Photo: Kerry Lentz")
Texas Tech students may want to consider leaving RaiderGATE or other pre-game festivities earlier than usual and have their ID's handy for Saturday's showdown between The Associated Press' No. 1 University of Texas and No. 5 Tech at Jones AT&T Stadium.
With anticipation building around Saturday's game including a visit from the popular pre-game television show, ESPN's College GameDay, visiting Tech this weekend, a large crowd is expected to attend the game. Tickets to the game are sold out.
In 2006, the last time Tech hosted Texas, the Jones AT&T Stadium attendance record was broken with 56,158 fans spectating a Texas 35-31 victory.
Jarod Huddleston, the director of ticket operations in the Tech athletics office, said the student entrance gates will open at 5 p.m. Saturday for the first 11,600 Tech students.
Huddleston recommends students queue up in the line to enter the student gates around 4 p.m. Saturday.
To get into the student section, students will need their Tech ID, Huddleston said. Students will have their IDs swiped by event staff to be granted access into the student section. The student section takes up all the seating behind the south end zone and runs along the visiting team's sideline in the lower section of the stadium to about the south 40 yard line. The green Double T area behind the north end zone will serve as student section overflow.
"We're really encouraging students who have had trouble with their I.D.s to get a new one before the game," he said. "All I.D.s will be checked and scanned before a student is allowed admission into the stadium. No one without a (Tech) student I.D. will be allowed to enter through the student gates."
Dolores Harper, the director of University I.D. Card program, said the I.D. office is beginning to see an increase in students visiting their office for new I.D. cards and expects to see more students as the week moves on.
There are two major problems students could face with their card's magnetic strip, she said, that could potentially keep their cards from successfully swiping and, consequently, having their access to the game denied.
"You'll have problems if your card is scratched or if it has any type of bend," she said. "But the biggest problem we see for students are the scratches."
A $52 Student Athletic Fee allows Tech students into any varsity home athletic event, according to the Department of Institutional Research and Information Management. Officials can verify that a student has paid the fee by swiping a student's Tech I.D. card.
Harper said there is no way for students in doubt to know whether they have paid the fee without visiting the I.D. office in the Student Union Building.
"They have to contact us and we can tell them if they had paid the fee or not," she said.
Huddleston said only the first 11,600 students will be allowed into the game before the gates close and no students outside the 11,600 will be allowed into the stadium without a ticket, but added the student gates have never closed on students before.
Huddleston also debunked a rumor that has been circulating that those who are camping out by the student gates in "Raiderville" will get tickets or vouchers to ensure the campers get seats prior to the gates opening.
"They'll just be at the front of the line when the gates open," he said. "They'll have to run and grab a seat just like everyone else."
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