BY LOGAN HURSTON FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — On the morning of Jan. 25, excitement was in the air as the No. 1 Auburn Tigers were set to play No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers in basketball. Students were lined up early in the morning for a chance to get on College GameDay and secure a ticket for the game later that evening.
There was one problem, however: The weather was too cold for students to camp out days in advance, as has become a new Auburn basketball tradition. Typically, a village of tents is lined up outside Neville Arena before big games, with students piling in with their friends and making new ones along the way. However, with a rare snowstorm crippling the area, Auburn officials decided to prohibit overnight camping out of concern for students being out in sub-freezing temperatures.
The line for College GameDay officially started at 6:30 a.m., but some students arrived earlier because of the large number of students who would be vying to get into the big game. At 7 a.m., the doors of the arena opened, but the arrival of students didn’t go as planned. Hundreds of students were lined up at barricades for the “official line,” which was quite a distance from the student entrance to Neville Arena, so many students began running to get inside and find a seat up front for the nationally televised ESPN GameDay broadcast. The barricade at the start of the line broke and chaos ensued.
A crowd surge caused some students to get trampled, causing cuts, scrapes, bruises and other injuries. The wave of people pushed toward the door, and students said they were unable to help their fellow students unless they wanted to end up in the same position.
“We were on top of everyone there,” said Ethan C., a student in the line. “There was no room to breathe. Some people were getting lightheaded and fainting or vomiting from the pressure of the crowd. Immediately at 6:30 a.m., I heard people around me chant ‘push, push!’ I saw a group of 10 people go down and couldn’t get up. If I tried to stop, I was going to get trampled or injured myself. After five minutes when everyone got to the entrance of Neville Arena, I heard ambulance sirens.”
Ethan and his friends would end up leaving the line, feeling like it wasn’t worth the risk and fighting to get back to the exit. Ethan is from California, and with the wildfires currently happening near his home, he was looking forward to the basketball game as a spirit lifter. The line had the opposite effect on him.
“It was so disorganized,” said Cole H., another student who was at the scene. “There was only about three to four officers or security guards and a sea of people waiting outside the ‘official line’ until they finally opened the gates, and everyone began to sprint forward,” he said. “Eventually, while I was running with everyone, I got knocked over a metal police barricade and had people behind me still running forward, landing on top of me. While I was stuck on the ground with people on top of my legs, the bottom of the barricade scraped the entire inside of my leg. It is completely swollen now. In the end, I wasn’t even able to get a student ticket.”
Pictures and video from the melee began popping up on social media pages, which offended some students.
“It was very tone-deaf,” said Ethan C. “You see all of this going on outside and to post people running and videos of students celebrating, that was not the moment for this. Especially without them referencing it beforehand.”
The university released the following statement regarding the incident: “Extreme weather conditions during the course of the week forced Auburn to make the difficult decision to disallow the traditional premier match-up camp out which occurs in Jungle Village and allows students to line up gradually over a period of time. As temperatures deemed a camp out to be unsafe, the student line was announced to open at 6:30 a.m., prior to doors opening for students and fans at 7 a.m. For a brief moment upon line opening, a group of students rushed around the side of security, working personnel and students who had staged near the barricade entry. Those students began jumping barricades to gain entry, which impacted the students trying to enter the barricades in an orderly fashion. All students in line in advance of this morning’s live broadcast — including students who walked up after the initial line was cleared — were admitted to the arena and provided with a wrist-band for entry to tonight’s game. On-site medical staff reported a few minor injuries which were addressed locally by EMS. Auburn is reviewing feedback and video footage from the line to develop plans for future games to ensure student safety.”
Despite rumors on social media, The Observer was unable to confirm any students suffered broken bones or other serious injuries from the incident.
