Simon Haidamous and Taylor Banks already have their plane tickets to California. They have plans to celebrate New Year's Eve in Los Angeles. They're excited about seeing the UT football team play the Michigan Wolverines for the first time.
The two business honors sophomores just need admission to the game.
"I should be stressing about finals, but right now it's Rose Bowl tickets," Haidamous said.
The UT football team won a bid to the Rose Bowl on Sunday after the University of California beat the University of Southern Mississippi with a narrower margin than expected. The Longhorns suddenly found themselves pushed up in the BCS standings, and students, faculty and fans found themselves searching for ticket Web sites and airline listings to find a way to the game.
Texas Box Office started taking reservations on Sunday afternoon for the 23,000 passes allotted to the University.
The same priority system used during the normal season will be implemented, allowing students with sports passes the first chance to get Rose Bowl tickets, said Mark Harrison, manager of the box office.
"It's a way to reward loyal fans and students," he said.
More than 21,000 tickets were requested during the first day, though students have until 4 p.m. on Friday to place orders. Students will find out Dec. 15 by e-mail if their requests were fulfilled.
"There's a lot of excitement around," Harrison said. "There's obviously a huge demand for tickets."
UT students have first priority by classification, then Longhorn Foundation members, "T" Association members, UT voting faculty and Texas Exes members. Any remaining tickets would then be offered to the general public.
Though they don't have tickets yet, Banks and Haidamous share in the growing excitement about the Rose Bowl.
After learning about the BCS bid, the two fans decided at noon on Sunday to start looking at the prices of flights to California, Haidamous said.
"We've never been to the Rose Bowl; we've never played Michigan," he said. "When are we ever going to go to the Rose Bowl again?"
Though they considered driving the 23 hours to Pasadena, Calif., the thought of spending so much time in a car didn't seem appealing, Banks said.
"Now with flying, it's going to be much more relaxing, much more fun," he said.
Haidamous and Banks applied for tickets through the Texas Box Office, but they plan to try buying them during the Rose Bowl public sale to double their chances, Banks said.
"It doesn't really matter to us where we sit, as long as we're in the stadium," he said.
A limited number of tickets will be released to the general public through Ticketmaster today at 10 a.m.
Flights are becoming nearly as difficult to obtain as the coveted Rose Bowl passes.
"We started looking at airlines' tickets at about [2 p.m.] in preparation to go, and we finally bought them at [6 p.m.] yesterday," said Banks.
They noticed prices starting to rise after 6 p.m. because of a growing demand, he said.
One-way tickets from California to Houston soared from $300 to $450 within an hour after Haidamous bought his round-trip ticket for $338.
"Our flights are booked - I just want a ticket," Haidamous said.
ROSE BOWL BREAKDOWN
What: University of Texas v. University of Michigan
Where: Pasadena, Calif.
When: Saturday, Jan. 1, 2005
Tickets: Texas Box Office will take reservations from the UT community until Friday at 4 p.m. and announce results Wednesday, Dec. 15. Call 512-471-3333 for details. Ticketmaster will make tickets available for the general public today at 10 a.m. Cost: $125, plus $4.75 convenience fee
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