Alabama marching band not traveling to Texas over seating location

There will be a little less pageantry in Austin this weekend for the Alabama-Texas game. The Alabama marching band will not be making the trip, the school confirmed Tuesday.

It follows a day of chatter surrounding the seating location of opposing bands at Texas games. A statement from UA Athletics to AL.com confirmed the marching band would not be making the trip west.

“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 statement read.

SEC game agreements that state visiting fans are allotted seats in the upper and lower bowls. The Big 12 has no such agreement so all 5,000 tickets for Alabama fans are in the upper deck.

The Million Dollar Band traditionally travels to every road game, whether it’s the full or abbreviated version to fit seating allotments at SEC stadiums. This is the first true non-conference game played in an opposing stadium since the 2011 game at Penn State. The Million Dollar Band did not make the trip to State College.

This isn’t a new issue with visiting bands at Texas, as LSU learned in a 2019 trip to Austin. Its band was tucked away in the upper deck, a move that led LSU to say they’d force Texas to do the same when the Longhorns visited the following year, according to The Advocate. That game was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The contract Alabama signed with Texas in 2018 included vague instructions regarding the marching band seating location.

“The Visiting Institution band seats, if needed, must come from the Visiting Institution’s ticket allotment. The Host Institution will provide information regarding the standard location of the seats for a Visiting Institution’s band members.

Alabama was set to receive 500 complimentary tickets and request up to 4,500 additional tickets to be sold on consignment.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.