From the eyes of a UF student

Exactly one month ago, I and hundreds of other male Gator fans crammed into a men’s bathroom in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. We were shoulder-to-shoulder trying to get a look at a TV as UCLA’s Eric McNeal deflected, then dove, then intercepted John David Booty’s pass to seal one of the biggest upsets of the year. We yelled. We high-fived. We hugged.

As the news trickled throughout the stadium, it dawned on Gator Nation we actually had a shot to play in the National Championship. Although Arkansas made it exciting, Urban and Co. came away with an impressive enough win to make the voters put the Gators in the Jan. 8 BCS Championship game against Ohio State.

In my fourth year at the University of Florida, I told my brother, a UF alum, that we would be in Arizona for that game. About two days later I booked my flight and began my search for tickets to the game. Surely in a month I could find tickets, right? Well, as I sit here today mulling through tickets on eBay that cost $2,000 to $3,000, I’ve come to realize that I was, in a word, wrong.

So here I sit less than a week before the game, and I’m unsure of my fate. I’m still clinging to the hope of a ticket, and I have yet to cancel my flight. Perhaps the football gods will bring me a late Christmas present.