I used to be an apologist for student seating in BDS as well...back when I was a student and recent grad.
In the past 5-6 years I have completely changed my mind, though. The lack of attendance is not just an embarrassment to the students...but to the fan base as a whole. The worst number I saw was 74.4% for the 2011 game against LSU. This was the "Game of the Century"...ESPN Gameday was there...and it was at night. That small of a percentage is embarrassing.
My solution...FWIW...would be to cut the allotment down to 12,000 and make it free. Yes...you read that...make it free. Why? If they sell 17,000 seats at $10 per game...that is only $170,000 per game. You would make that up with less than 500 Tide Pride seats...and you'd be getting 5,000 new Tide Pride seats sold and filled at each game. It used to be a privilege as a student that you bought season tickets...so charging for them ($5 when I was there) made sense. Attendance at football games is obviously not seen as a privilege by the majority of students any longer...so I say make it free and when 12,000 students have gone through the gates...everyone else is turned away. Because it's free you can't complain that you didn't get in...you should have shown up earlier. It's the only real solution IMHO...and I hope something like this happens sooner rather than later because I am tired of being on the Tide Pride wait list...been on it for almost 6 years now.