The last place a student wants to be on a Penn State football gameday is away from the student section, but circumstances forced me up there.

I didn’t get lucky enough in the student ticket lottery, and unlike my freshman year, when I was able to get student tickets from my sister’s friend who was still a grad student, I was truly up against it this year.

I considered the student resale marketplace, but the prices there were simply outrageous. The lowest it got for a season opener against a Sun Belt school was $70. Less than an hour before the game, it was $130. I’d rather stay at home than be in Beaver Stadium for those prices in that game.

Fortunately for me and hundreds of others, Penn State opened up seating in Section 404 for students still looking for tickets, and I was fortunate enough to grab seats in Row 2 for the rest of the season. We’ll see if I actually sit up there for all seven games, but Marshall was a good test drive to see how this new permanent seating looked and to experience Beaver Stadium from up there.

Since it technically doesn’t count as a student section ticket, I went in through one of the makeshift side gates on the renovated side and began the trek up the mountain. There was probably an escalator somewhere, but I walked up the long, long ramp to the main concourse, thinking I was just about there. But unlike the east side of the stadium, there was still a helluva lot more to climb.

A makeshift staircase (that I assume will be turned into escalators soon enough) took me the rest of the way there. All in all, it took 15-20 minutes to get from the gate to my seat, which I hope will be shorter once construction is complete in 2027.

As you can see above, it’s a solid seat, albeit slightly obstructed due to a necessary safety railing. The bleachers are beneath the stair level, so if someone stumbled off the second row, the railing could absolutely save their life. It didn’t block much, especially considering Marshall never got in the red zone.

The jarring part is just how high you are. If you’ve ever sat in the nosebleeds at an NFL stadium, you know what I mean. This renovation feels like they’re trying to make Beaver Stadium the biggest NFL-type stadium in the world. Maybe it’ll help insulate the noise further, but it feels pretty loud already.

Also, if you go all the way to the top, the view is insanely pretty:

Penn State added a brand new upper bowl to Beaver Stadium, so I went to the highest possible seat in the building and the view is SPECTACULAR. Look at this. pic.twitter.com/k30jOV5p6z

— Connor Griffin (@RealCGriff) September 6, 2026

Knowing I was going to be high up in the new stadium, with all the new players, I printed out a roster just to see who I was watching. I felt like an NFL scout from the nosebleed seats with a roster in hand, but it was helpful.

As much as it’s a perfectly fine place to sit, I had a few issues. For one, the energy difference between the lower bowl and the upper bowl was drastic. Going from the student section, the most hype and loudest section of the stadium, to a quiet upper deck is a bit disappointing. All the pregame music, the singalongs, and everything that came with it felt significantly weaker up here. The trade-off is you don’t have to stand for 60 minutes, so….

There was also an issue with the incomplete food options in the concourse. They had one mini “food court” with hot dogs and burgers, a frozen lemonade stand, and a bunch of bottled drinks in fridges, but the diverse options of the lower decks were nowhere to be seen. There was also no way for a student to pay with LionCash or a meal plan in the upper bowls.

Now, the complaints I had during the game were immediately invalidated when I saw, on my way out, that the concourse connected to the seatback sections in the south end zone, which had all the concessions you’d expect. That’s my bad.

Ultimately, all I could think about as the clock ticked down on the first win of the Matt Campbell era was the price difference. Would I rather sit up here for seven games for about $250, or spend north of $1,000 to sit in the student section, given how unreasonable the student marketplace is?

I’ll take the former. After all, the student section empties at halftime during non-conference play anyway.