UF student David Baden had what may have been the best seats he'll ever get for a Gators football game.
Unfortunately, he only got to see the first half of the first quarter.
Baden, a 20-year-old mechanical engineering junior, was ejected from his second-row, 30-yard line seats at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday for standing on the bleachers along with seven or eight other students.
Although the law enforcement officer who kicked them out told them an usher had warned them, Baden said he hadn't received any such warning.
"If I would've been told, I would have easily gotten down. I just thought that's what fans do," he said, of standing on bleachers. "It's what I've done every single game of my college career so far, and I've never ever heard that it wasn't allowed."
Baden was one of 23 people ejected from the game for standing on bleachers, said Maj. Brad Barber, public information officer for the University Police Department.
That's the same number of people ejected for standing on the bleachers at the football game against the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Sept. 10. Six people were ejected for the same offense at the game against Florida Atlantic University on Sept. 3.
There were five arrests and 89 total ejections at the game this weekend.
Eighteen people were ejected for alcohol possession, but only one person was arrested, Barber said. Another fan was arrested for underage possession of alcohol. Twenty-three people were ejected for disorderly conduct, and 14 people were kicked out for intoxication.
UPD Lt. Mitchal Welsh was in charge of the booking room at Gate 13 of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday. He said the ejection numbers were higher than the previous two games of the season most likely because it was a sold-out game.
"The fans are just more into it, and they're rowdier than they are for a non-SEC game," Welsh said.
