Alabama wants students to exchange their privacy for tickets to college football matches



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Photo: Jamie Squire (Getty Images)

The fervor of students attending SEC schools for their respective football programs is so well known that it has become a clich̩ that calls for religious comparisons. But for University of Alabama coach Nick Saban, this level of fandom just has not dropped since, and he went so far as to repeatedly call his team's fans for not having witnessed clashes between non-conference opponents like New Mexico. State, which the Crimson Tide beat 62-10 last Saturday. In the hope of quietly appeasing the most powerful man in the state, the school worked for what they thought was a mutually beneficial solution for Saban and the students of Alabama Рthe all for the low cost of privacy of these students.

In the home opener game of the team and his 42-3 win against Duke on August 31, the university launched the Tide Loyalty Points application. How does it work? He uses the technology of locating phones on student phones to find out who ends up going to the games and how long they stay. Those who own the app then register in the games to get a first batch of points and receive more and longer. Those who accumulate the most points have a better chance of winning the league title and tickets for college football matches.

Of course, not everyone accepts this type of compromise. A student that the New York Times said that the application was "a bit like Big Brother", while a lawyer from a privacy monitoring group also expressed serious concerns.

"Why should the stadium be packed in the fourth quarter, the last time the government wants to know where the students are?" [Adam] Schwartz added that it was "inappropriate" to encourage students to give up their privacy. "A public university is a teacher who tells students what is right in a democratic society."

Alabama Sports Director Greg Byrne countered these claims. Times these privacy concerns have simply not been addressed in discussions with student groups and university departments – as if one or the other would have the gall to stand up to the one who is the boss of Saban. Byrne also decided to defend the application with the argument that the tracking was correct because the phones are already under constant monitoring.

"If someone has a phone, unless you're in airplane mode or you turn it off, the mobile companies know where you are," he said.

Beyond confidentiality issues, health and safety issues have also been raised as a result of this application. In Saturday's game against the New Mexico State, temperatures reached all three figures and nearby doctors were apparently busy with the number of patients they had to treat. Logically, it would be logical for students to escape from the heat and find a cool place to hydrate instead of staying in football, but it's not that easy in a school where football is one of the most important sources of social influence. As a result, some dedicated fans may have felt obliged to stay out of the freezing weather in order to get the points needed to get coveted playoff tickets, so that hydration is cursed. (This problem has been resolved, according to the Timesstudents who register in bad weather will get points for the full game).

But none of these issues seems to matter to Saban, who addressed the students' section on Saturday as if it were a group of his players who had to take over here.

"Everyone wants to be the beast, but they do not want to do what the beast does," Saban said. "So everyone has to make a sacrifice. I mean, do you want to be the lion?

[…]

"Everyone has to do something," he said. "Everyone wants to be No. 1. If I asked the whole student section," Do you want to be # 1? "Nobody would raise their hand and say," I want to be No. 4. "Would we all say we want to be No. 1. But are they willing to do anything to be No. 1 That's another question Ask them, I do not know the answer. "

As expected, he was not as willing to go as long as privacy concerns were raised in his post-match bail, but rather to give Belichick the answer. "It's not my cup of tea. I'm trying to find a way to stop Snag Seven Flat. "

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