Clemson is changing its football student ticket policy again. Here's why

Clemson had trouble filling its student section, particularly the hill, during parts of last year's football season.

The Tigers had low attendance on the hill during games against Wake Forest and Boston College, leading to a change in the ticket policy in the middle of the year.

A new student ticket policy in 2018 will to try to ensure that problem does not happen again.

Clemson announced its new student ticket policy on Thursday, and for the first time, a portion of the student tickets will be available for purchase. There will be 10,200 total student tickets available for each game, and 3,600 season tickets will be sold to students.

The Clemson athletics department worked with student body president Mason Foley and other student leaders to come up with this new policy, according to Clemson spokesman Joe Galbraith.

“Student body president Mason Foley has been really proactive about trying to put together a policy and plan that better ensured tickets got into the hands of students who were invested and wanted to attend,” Galbraith said. “It is meant to incentivize students who care the most about going to the games. That is how the conversation began, and then the process began to take shape.”

Season tickets will be available for $280 for lower level and $210 for upper level. Online registration for season tickets will begin Aug. 1.

Once season tickets have been assigned for students, there will be a weighted lottery for single-game tickets. Students can enter the lottery for as many games as they would like. The weighted lottery system will be based on credit hours and IPTAY status. Winners of the lottery will be announced prior to the season, and tickets will be available to be picked up the week of each game.

There also will be tickets for the hill distributed on game day, as well as any other tickets that go unclaimed.

Students not showing up — and staying — at games hurts the crowd noise, looks bad on TV and also can be a bad look for recruits.

With the new plan, “all of the student tickets end up in the hands of students who want to attend by the three different processes, whether you purchase a student ticket, you pick up your ticket the week of the game through the lottery or the day of the game through game day distribution, you have shown some commitment and investment to wanting to attend moreso than what they’ve done in the past or some other method,” Galbraith said.

Making the majority of the tickets free was a point of emphasis with the new ticket policy.

“That’s a uniquely Clemson tradition that we all understand and value and wanted to ensure is the case moving forward,” Galbraith said.

All of the tickets on the hill will be free, with half available by lottery and half available for pick up the day of the game.

Half of the lower-level and upper-level tickets will be free and distributed through the lottery. The other half will be sold as season tickets.

If any season tickets go unsold, they will be made available for free as part of the single-game process.

Clemson had several policies the past few years, including having students camp out for tickets and a fully online system.

This story was originally published July 5, 2018 at 3:08 PM.