Some Bison fans had their tickets to FCS quarterfinal game at USD canceled

A friend in Rian Nostrum’s car suggested when ordering tickets on the USD ticket sales website that they use a password “playoffs,” which was buzzing around phones and message boards in this day and age of instant communication.

“It didn’t require any credentials,” Nostrum said. “You can buy tickets and you can buy as many as you want.”

NDSU fan George Vinson bought tickets, had his credit card charged and made travel plans to Vermillion, S.D.

“I entered the code and bought like everyone else,” he said.

Later, however, Vinson received an email from the USD ticket office saying his tickets were canceled, with the message “the presale is for season ticket holders and (H)owling (P)ack members only.”

The Howling Pack is the USD booster club equivalent to NDSU’s Team Makers. It indicated his refund will be processed in seven-to-10 business days. Vinson produced a screenshot of both messages to The Forum.

“It seems they are trying to keep the opposing team out of their stadium,” Vinson said. “That doesn’t seem fair or sportsmanlike.”

On the flipside, USD director of ticket sales and operations Adam Riley said it was clear on the order form that tickets were for Howling Club members only.

"The code got out, whether it's our fans or somebody out there who shared the code with NDSU fans," Riley said. "NDSU fans went on there and bought tickets. It lets them, but it says in there it's for Howling Pack members."

Riley said his office went through the requests and canceled those that weren't members. On Tuesday afternoon, the game sold out, although any unclaimed season tickets will go on sale Wednesday at noon. For the USD ticket office, this is new ground with a playoff ticket frenzy.

"It's been an interesting experience," Riley said. "It's my first time."

It's not the first time for veteran Bison fans, who over the years bought tickets well in advance of the FCS national title game in Frisco, Texas, betting on their team making it there. That led to angst from fans from Bison opposing teams.

In this case, both Nostrum and Vinson say they have heard of other fans getting their tickets canceled.

On Monday, the USD athletic department tweeted on its official X account: “Due to the system challenges we experienced during the early access ticket window, the general public on sale for Saturday’s quarterfinal playoff game will be delayed. This will allow our stakeholders enough time to address any issues and secure their seats.”

That came two days after a tweet following USD’s second round win over Sacramento State on Saturday that a glitch in requests from season ticket holders was resolved and season ticket holders could now claim their seats.

NDSU purchased the maximum allowed 500 allocated tickets, which is the norm for visiting teams in the FCS playoffs, said Kaye Ternes, NDSU’s assistant athletic director for ticket operations. Those tickets, however, are distributed via a priority points system, meaning if you’re not in the top 500 or in a pecking order after that, and you want to go to the game, you have to find another way.

Criteria for accumulating priority points include years as a season ticket holder, continuous years as a Team Makers member and other factors, like being a former student-athlete.

“The interesting thing is there are folks who still have not been canceled,” Nostrum said. “So as I dug into it, based on what fans have said, it sounds like they’ve opened up some additional pre-sales that they had not planned to in order to sell as many tickets as possible. .. When you placed your order, it didn’t say you had to be a member of this but obviously the password was intended for this one group. But there was no front-end vetting.”

2023 FCS playoffs