The demand for Sugar Bowl tickets was so great Thursday morning that Utah's software provider for the ticket office crashed. That was probably the best news for Utah fans, hoping to get their hands on some of the 17,500 tickets Utah was given for the Jan. 2 game against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Tickets not ordered by Crimson Club or by season ticket holders went on sale to the general public Thursday at 10 a.m. The problem was, not only Utah fans have the info where to get tickets - so did the thousands of Alabama fans without tickets.

Alabama, which used its allotment by mid-November through offerings to its 60,000-plus season ticket holders, put out a notice that tickets could be bought through Utah's ticket office today.

The demand jammed phone lines and crashed the computer program less than an hour into the sale.

Not being able to buy tickets online might have been inconvenient, but at least Utah fans could buy tickets in person without having to compete with Alabama fans.

The ticket office continued to take orders over the phone (801-581-UTIX) and the university had extra personnel taking orders, but it was still hard to get through. Utah's online system was working again by late afternoon.