I had five tickets on the 50- yard line for Clemson's home opener against Middle Tennessee State this past weekend. The only problem was that those five 50- yard line seats were on the very top row of the upper deck.

After my family and I made the climb to row NN of the north stands, I felt more like I should have been carrying hiking poles and an oxygen mask than pompoms and a program. When we finally sat down and caught our collective breaths, a guy with a sarcastic grin on his face already sitting in row MM turned to me and said, "Hey - I'm glad to see someone got worse seats than me!"

That's the problem with buying tickets a couple of days before game day. They stick you in the cheap seats. Honestly, I had no expectation my seats would be anything other than the nosebleed variety, but I will admit I didn't expect to be looking down on Tillman Hall or the birds flying through the stadium.

The balloons released when the Tigers ran down the Hill never reached eye level before they floated off into the distance. It started raining in the second quarter, but I think the folks on row NN were the only ones who left the stadium wet because I'm pretty sure the rain evaporated before it reached our friends in the better seats.

I knew I was in trouble when we walked up the ramp to the upper deck. My youngest daughter clutched my wife's leg much like she had several years ago when we tricked her into riding the rocket ships in Tomorrow Land at Disney World. I didn't feel quite as guilty this time though.

"How much higher do we have to go?" she asked growing more terrified by the minute. All I could do was point to the stands above us with a sympathetic look and say, "At least we won't be flying through the air in a tiny rocket ship on a pole this time."

My son decided to terrify my wife by taking every opportunity to leap at the sidewall so that he could get a better look at the top of Littlejohn Coliseum. My oldest daughter didn't say much at all. I think the poor thing may have had a touch of altitude sickness.

But life in the cheap seats turned out all right. My wife may sing a different tune because she handled all the bathroom breaks with the kids and the monumental descents and ascents that accompanied them, but nobody sat behind us and only a giant with a huge Afro could have blocked our view.

The uppermost of the upper deck wasn't crowded, and it was laid back. The only uptight fans in our section were the acrophobics, but who can blame them? It also helped that Clemson running back C.J. Spiller started the game with a 96- yard kickoff return for a touchdown, and the Tigers went on the win handily making our view from the clouds a beautiful one.