Alabama Not Bringing The ‘Million Dollar Band’ To Texas Game

Alabama heads to Austin this weekend for a huge game with the Texas Longhorns that will be broadcast on FOX. But according to Texas officials that OutKick spoke with, the Tide’ will be without one of their key attractions, the famous ‘Million Dollar Band’.

Alabama has released a statement to OutKick regarding the matter.

“Due to the seating location and configuration of the visiting institution’s ticket allotment at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, the Million Dollar Band will not make the trip this weekend for the Alabama at Texas football game.”

The showdown with Texas has been heavily promoted over the last few months, with FOX having its ‘Big Noon Kickoff’ and ESPN bringing ‘College Gameday’ to Austin for the game. But, the marching band not making the trip is a a bummer, especially if you’re a Tide fan headed to Texas.

Alabama’s Million Dollar Band has decided against making the trip because the ticket allotment is not enough for the full band. This isn’t anything new for visiting teams. Texas officials decided years ago to give their fans the better seats, moving the visitors section to the upper deck, which I don’t blame them for doing.

Well, this was a bit odd, add on to the fact that LSU only officially got 3,000 tickets from Texas. https://t.co/PNipTF37NF

— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) September 9, 2019

Usually, if teams cannot get the full allotment needed for the full marching band, the school will send a smaller ‘Pep Band’. So, maybe Alabama decides to bring a lesser contingent. But, any ticket allotment that is given by Texas, means Alabama would have to make a decision on whether donors or band members get to sit in the Texas heat.

Texas making sure TCU’s band is as far away from the field as possible pic.twitter.com/jY89pjKbHp

— Taylor Gaspar Estes (@TaylorEstes247) September 22, 2018

Texas AD Chris Del Conte made it clear in a 2018 tweet that this decision to move the visitors section was to benefit Texas students.

“We moved the visitors section from the lower bowl to give our students a contiguous student section thus creating a fantastic atmosphere for in DKR … if a visiting team elects to bring their band must sit in the seats allotted for visitors.”

We’ve seen this become a growing trend around college football. Gone are the days when the opposing team could bring 300 marching band members. Schools are not willing to give up the extra space, if they are having to pay for it. Each visiting team is allotted a certain amount of tickets and it’s up to them to decide how they’ll use it.

Alabama and Texas will Kickoff at 12ET on FOX. Stick with OutKick, as we will be on the ground in Austin for this matchup.