At the Monday student government meeting, Donald Coryell, associate athletics director, said student attendance during the Thursday night football game against Arkansas State is essential.

“This game we expect the attendance to be student-driven,” Coryell said. “If we beat Arkansas, then we will get a tie-breaker and have an opportunity to place second in the Sun Belt league. We still have a lot to play for and a chance to compete in a bowl game.”

Coryell said Texas State students filled the stadium at the game against the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns on Oct. 14 and helped establish it as the matchup with the second-highest student attendance rate of all time with 7,000 attendees.

Athletic department officials will give each student a free guest ticket as an incentive to pack the stadium in support of the Bobcats, he said.

“We’re putting up yard signs all over campus, we’re bringing football players out into the quad and we’re doing free guest tickets for this game,” Coryell said. “If you go to the ticket office before 5:20 p.m. on Thursday, you can get a free ticket for a friend or someone you know.”

Overall, student attendance rate this season has “drastically” increased, he said.

“I want to say a tremendous thank you to the student crowds,” Coryell said. “Last season we had an average of 3,200 students per game, and this season we’ve had an average of 5,500 students per game. I think it says a lot about our students, and we are grateful because a lot of other schools around the country are experiencing a trend in the opposite direction.”

This article was written by Anna Herod and sourced from https://star.txstate.edu/node/2909