Students wait in line outside Stegeman Coliseum to pick up their tickets.

Want tickets? Right this way

By: JASON BUTT

Posted: 8/7/08

If you've been reading the sports section lately, apparently this football season is supposed to be a good one. And if you're a freshman, you don't want to miss out.

That's why it's important to make sure you're prepared and don't forget the deadline for signing up for student tickets this fall.

First off, you want to go online and add georgiadogs.com/student-tickets to your favorites so you'll have the Web site on your computer when registration begins on Aug. 20 at noon. In order to sign up for tickets you must have signed up for at least six hours of classes, but 12 hours are necessary to insure your priority for receiving tickets. If you don't have 12 hours, you will be behind all new full-time freshmen when tickets are allotted.

In addition, all student fees must be paid and you can't have any flags on your student account. Once ticket registration begins, you have until Aug. 21 at noon to complete the online form to be able to get tickets. Each student ticket is $8 per game, and you are only charged for the games you receive.

You will receive an e-mail on Sunday, Aug. 24, telling you what you ticket package you can buy and on what day and time you will be able to pick up your tickets.

However, as freshmen, you most likely won't receive every home game ticket. With the student population increasing every year, there aren't enough student tickets for everyone. Because of this, the priority system for receiving full-season ticket packages relies on how many University hours you have accumulated. This will result in most freshmen receiving half packages, which means at minimum you will receive at least three home tickets.

Don't give up hope yet though. There are ways to get to every game. Unfortunately, one of those means is shelling out some money to those that are scalping their tickets. In the Tate Center, there are places where people post ads for items they are looking to sell. These include tickets, and you can call fellow students to buy their tickets.

You can also go on WebCT and scroll through your classes' discussion boards to see if anyone is offering to sell their tickets.

However, keep in mind that scalping tickets for more than face value is not only against University policy but also against Georgia law. Be careful and good luck. You only have the opportunity to hang out with more than 92,000 of your best friends every Saturday for four (sometimes five) years once.