I like the idea of having a capacity associated with each tent. We always crammed a large amount of people in ours, but for groups like that a second tent is always a possible solution. Keeping track of total students per tent would in theory benefit the department by allowing them to keep track of how long the line has become, and help students who don't plan to camp out have an idea of how early they need to be there on gameday.
Let's say in theory each tent has a lead representative. Their purpose is to be there for the first check-in, and they can be the contact if any dispute is going on about line positioning. That tent is then assigned some sort of designation, whether the representative's last name, their numerical position, something along those lines. The department staffer then marks down, on whatever record keeping item they choose, that "Tent Cynado" is in position #8, and has registered the maximum number of 10 students. Does the staffer then give the tent 10 "tickets" marking their position in line? Just thinking out loud here.
I don't think they should give "tickets," but pre-scan student IDs for a limited number of people per tent. The people with those IDs will be the ones who get in according to their tent placement. And they need to do random checks to make sure that the minimum number of people with proper IDs are there to hold their place in line.
I hope someone is actually paying attention to us. We may have some decent ideas.
Oh, and the random checks could also be safety checks.