For fall 2009 student ticket distribution for football games was online, with students purchasing the tickets online and printing them from their computers. The new system did not allow purchase of season tickets, both to allow a variety of students the opportunity to attend and to avoid the empty seats that had resulted from the previous year’s system, which allowed the purchase of season tickets that were not used for some games. Nonconference home game tickets cost $10, and SEC game tickets cost $20.
The process involved first making an online request in a two-day window ten days prior to any game day, starting Wednesday of the week prior, with no advantage or disadvantage to being first or last to make the request. Students were then given three opportunities to purchase a ticket: Claim Period 1, Claim Period 2, and Open Sales. Tickets were nontransferable.
A loyalty points program was also implemented. The more loyalty points a student had, the greater the probability of getting tickets and better seating. Since 2009 was the first year of the program, all students were allotted points based on the number of hours completed. Loyalty points were awarded for attendance at all sports, and students could get extra points for coming early.