In anticipation of a new football season beginning Saturday, the Athletics Department is revamping the Sabre Points Reward system.
Students can earn Sabre Points by attending athletic events on Grounds; the points are used to determine the amount of entries a student has into ticket lotteries. They will now also determine the entry groups for men’s basketball games, while previously entry groups were assigned at random. Now the students with the most points will be assigned to Entry Group 1, and the process will continue until the final entry group is assigned.
As of last Thursday, every home sporting event will now be worth one Sabre Point. Designated events and football games will be worth five points. Previously, students only had the opportunity to earn points at the designated rewards events.
“With these changes come several benefits for students,” Todd Goodale, senior associate athletics director for external affairs, said in an email statement.
Students can earn Sabre Points throughout the entire academic year, and 20 percent of the points earned will be carried over to the next year. This process will begin at the conclusion of the 2016-17 academic year.
The structure of the new system was decided by the Athletics Department in conjunction with students from the Athletics Affairs committee in Student Council, Dustin Jones, fourth-year Curry student and ’Hoo Crew president, said.
The department conducted a study with these students in order to determine the best way to implement the system.
These new guidelines come as a continuation to some of the changes that were made to the ticketing system last year.
“Basketball used to be the only sport that was on a different ticketing system from every other sport so [the Athletics Department] wanted to get it on the same page,” Jones said. “The system isn’t changing anymore [this year]. It’s just being finalized into what it’s meant to be.”
Ryan Zimmerman, a third-year Batten student and ’Hoo Crew Sabre Points chairman, said the new structure of the system is also meant to encourage students to increase their support of student athletes. For example, all home football games are worth five points to help increase attendance.
“Football, I believe, is worth more points right now because we’re really making a push with the new coach, Coach Mendenhall, and his new program that he has,” Zimmerman said. “I do think it’s a good thing now, just to get people excited about the program.”
However, Zimmerman iterated that while students have always been excited about football and basketball, the new rewards system will help some of the “more historically lesser-supported sports” gain more recognition.
“All of our student athletes work extremely hard, and they’re all extremely accomplished,” Zimmerman said. “We really tried to diversify the Sabre Rewards events to include at least one game from every sport this year.”
Both Zimmerman and Jones said so far they’ve heard positive feedback from the people they’ve talked to.
“I haven’t talked to too many non-’Hoo Crew committee members about it, but from what I’ve heard from the ’Hoo Crew committee and the few students I have talked to, it is a huge benefit to everyone,” Jones said.
Zimmerman echoed some of Jones’s sentiments, citing occurrences when students have approached him and told him that they like the new system because of the way it includes the lesser-known sports.
He said he has also heard that students are excited about having 20 percent of their Sabre Points carry over to the next year, giving upperclassmen an advantage in getting tickets.
However, Goodale noted this as being one of the potential problems with the new system.
“First-year students will be at a slight disadvantage at the start of the 2017-18 academic year compared to some second-, third- and fourth-year students who will begin with 20 percent of their points from 2016-17,” Goodale said. “However, first-year students will have plenty of opportunities to earn points during the fall semester.”
Zimmerman encouraged students seeking more information to visit the Virginia Athletics website.
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