Villanova's Pavilion only seats 6,500 people - compared to the Palestra's 8,722 - and the Penn Band nearly found itself in the unlucky 2,200 or so.
But thanks to a long-standing tweak in Villanova's policy concerning visiting bands, the Band will be playing at the men's basketball game in Villanova, Pa. on Saturday night.
"Typically, for Pavilion games, we don't let the [visiting] bands for any teams come in, just because of the size," said Bob Nyce, Villanova's ticket manager.
"For the Big 5 we make it available, it's just that their tickets have to already come out of the already allotted tickets that Penn would get," he said.
But the Big 5 rule change ultimately benefits the Quakers contingent.
Villanova grants its Big 5 visitors 300 tickets, compared to the 200 normally allotted to opponents, and the band does not always scoop up all the extras.
Penn "found tickets for us, so we are going Saturday night," according to R. Greer Cheeseman III, the band's director.
Cheeseman said the band got 25 of the extra hundred tickets despite some initial confusion.
- Sebastien Angel
Staff writer Andrew Todres contributed reporting.
