Do you have any idea how many student seats there are? Each row has about 30 or so seats. Section 105 which is similar to 111 has at least 61 rows. the other sections might have a couple fewer rows but in general each section holds 1500-2000 seats so that would mean a total of around 4500-5000 (I think actual number is 4600)seats for a student body (undergrad which is who generally sits there) of about 8K. This is a seat availability of 55-60%. Bigger state schools that you allude to do not have that availability of seats for the undergrad student body. For example, most big state schools in the BIG have undergrad student bodies of 40K or more (not IA or Purdue) . Do you really think that they are reserving 25K (only one that comes close is PSU with 21K)seats for the student body? Wisc has 14k Student section seats or about 35% coverage so no way. In fact this is pretty good as Mich is 13-14K, NEB is only 8500, etc. Only PSU has more and it still pales in % comparison. Kinnick has about 10.4k student seats for 29K undergrads.
http://www.dailynebraskan.com/sport...cle_9b30b5f8-2f1b-11e4-99ad-001a4bcf6878.html
In short NU student section might look a little more empty as it has available seating for 55-60% of the undergrad student body which is very high compared with other programs in the BIG that tend to have coverage for 35% or less of their undergrad student bodies. But most of them also have to buy tickets to the games where at NU it is part of the student fees. At the same time, it generally also represents a smaller % of total capacity than other schools that tent to be 13-20% of total capacity where NU is under 10% of total seating.. Several of these other stadiums have recently cut down student sections because of lack of use by students (IA sold 7400 of 10400 seats a couple years ago and they may have taken sections from student body to sell to general public. Mich reduced student capacity from 20k to 13-14K But again these are places where the seats can generally be sold to the public.
One of the reasons it has generally not been an issue is that NU does not generally sold out. This year is more of an exception with all the big games. And giving the students 3 sections likely would continue till outside demand is consistently great enough that it is an issue