The University of South Carolina is known for its passionate and engaged student body, fueled by a deeply-rooted culture of athletic pride. According to U.S. News and World Report’s annual undergraduate ranking, USC boasted top first-year student experience among the nation’s public universities consecutively from 2019-2025, in part driven by the strong athletic programs it offers. However, new and returning students alike are expressing frustration at the accessibility of certain athletic events—or lack thereof.
Addison McMurray, a freshman at USC, was excited to begin her first year as a Gamecock and experience the school’s iconic athletic events, specifically men’s football and women’s basketball. However, McMurray was disappointed to find that attending these events was not as easy as she was led to believe. She explained that while she was able to attend athletic events excluding football, she was left waiting in line for long periods of time—up to an hour per game. For USC football, even dedication to waiting in line is not necessarily enough to get you a seat in the stadium.
“For football, I’ve actually not yet been able to get any tickets whatsoever,” McMurray said. “It has been a lot more difficult than I anticipated it being.”
McMurray’s difficulty securing a ticket reflects a broader issue with campus athletics: the university recently set a new record for the number of student tickets requested—a staggering 21,000-plus—for the first home game of the 2025 season against South Carolina State University.
McMurray feels as though she is missing out on a key part of the student experience,especially as a first-year student. A large part of USC’s vibrant culture stems from its school spirit and strong athletic programs, but the difficulty of attending athletic events restricts first-year students' ability to engage with the culture and connect with the broader student body.
“Even if you’re not a big football person, a lot happens before and after the game, so if you don’t have tickets, you kind of just feel like, I don’t want to say a burden, but like you’re missing out on the opportunity to go to those events because it’s kind of around the football scene,” McMurray said.
This issue extends beyond just football: students are being turned away from volleyball games and soccer matches because of overcrowding and a limited number of points that can be given out via The Cockpit app, which USC uses to track student attendance.
USC’s upperclassmen, like senior Luci Strasburg, have watched the accessibility of athletic events like soccer and volleyball change in real time—and not necessarily for the better.
“It's definitely a lot busier, like the lines outside of the arenas or stadiums are really, really long, and a lot of people just go there to scan in and leave,” Strasburg said.
Strasburg makes a fair point—students with a genuine interest in watching Gamecock athletic events, such as soccer and volleyball, are having an increasingly difficult time accessing them. The point-based system incentivizes students to show up for games, but not stay to watch, resulting in a surge of attendance that can be linked to transactional loyalty as opposed to genuine enthusiasm.
Although missing athletic events is frustrating in and of itself, the social impacts extend far beyond just the games—students are losing out on a social outlet that has traditionally been used to build connections between peers and foster a greater sense of belonging within the community at large.
“It’s mostly just frustrating trying to get into a game when everyone else is just scanning and leaving and you have to wait behind them the entire time,” Strasburg said.
Both McMurray and Strasburg expressed that while both the free football tickets and the point system that encourages attendance for other athletic events are well-intentioned and beneficial in theory, they are ultimately not functioning effectively.
With a sentiment of general frustration echoed by both freshmen and upperclassmen alike, it becomes apparent that USC has a widespread issue on campus that extends beyond one-off experiences.
These student experiences raise an interesting question for the university: Is this sentiment of a lack of accessibility isolated or part of a broader trend of an increased desire to participate in Gamecock athletics?
Charles Bloom, the Admissions and Communications Officer for the Athletics Department at USC, offered expert insight into recent attendance patterns.
“We have 21 sports here at the university, 12 women’s sports and nine men’s sports, and we treat them at a very high level,” Bloom said. “We want them to succeed on the field in terms of wins and losses. We want them to be highly visible in the university community in the area, and so that’s where the attendance comes in.”
Per Bloom, tickets for the university’s athletic events are essentially free aside from a small student fee that is ultimately superseded by the value of the sports tickets themselves. While Bloom was unable to provide specific details regarding the accessibility of soccer and volleyball matches during the semester, he did add that he was aware of not having enough student tickets to meet everyone’s requests for the football season due to the high demand. Bloom noted that the average number of student tickets given out per football game is approximately 12,000.
Students’ frustration at not being able to get tickets for football games or be let into other events like soccer and volleyball points to a larger desire to be included in the university’s distinct culture. Addressing the barriers brought up by students like McMurray and Strasburg is one step toward creating a strong campus culture that is marked by community and inclusivity instead of frustration. Bloom hopes that students appreciate the memorable experiences that the athletic department strives to build.
“I hope that our student body understands how important it is to support their student-athlete friends and classmates and fellow students, and our student-athletes understand how important it is to have their friends and classmates in the stands supporting them,” Bloom said.
Ultimately, Bloom’s optimistic perspective reflects that of the university, which strives to create positive, engaging environments for its students. Yet, for some, the reality of the promised athletic experience leaves something to be desired.
“With how big football culture is here, I just wish it was easier to get tickets, but I know that’s a general feeling among a lot of the student body,” McMurray said. “I’m not sure exactly what the solution would be, I think they probably just need to re-work some of the point systems and rethink how much certain events—like how many points are rewarded for different events and whatnot.”
While the athletic department is well-intentioned in making student experiences memorable and engaging, some students believe that they are falling short, especially in regards to how points are distributed for athletic events. Ultimately, taking action to make athletic events more accessible for students overall has the potential to boost the cohesion and connection of the student body.
