Penn State football tickets were available to the public starting June 27, a full week before they were intended to be available for general sale.

News of the sale was inadvertently released when Ticketmaster did their own advertising the Friday before the sale, said Penn State manager of ticket operations Bud Meredith.

"We will work with Ticketmaster in the future to see what options we have with preventing outsiders from bidding," Meredith said.

Meredith said only alumni were supposed to be informed of the sale, but preventative measures to keep others from ordering tickets were not initiated. He added that there is no way of knowing how many non-alumni purchased tickets during what was to be a closed sale.

Tickets for the Ohio State game were sold out in less than three hours after the alumni sale, Meredith said, but he added that no other games have sold out yet.

Prior to Ticketmaster selling tickets for the football games, the Penn State Ticket Office ensured that only alumni would be able to buy tickets before the date of the public sale. Meredith said in previous years, a sales agent would verify that each purchaser was of alumni status.

Class of 2002 alumnus James Sanford said he tried to purchase tickets for the Penn State-Ohio State game last Monday, but there were no tickets available for him to purchase.

Sanford said he checked an Internet message board, ohiostate.rivals.com, where alumni seemed to express success with purchasing Penn State-Ohio State tickets.

"The sale was a huge success from [Penn State's] point of view," Sanford said. He added that the methods of advertising may have been somewhat misleading.

Advertisements for Nittany Lions tickets through Penn State athletics, available on their Web site www.gopsusports.com, said that distribution would be prioritized, sold first to Nittany Lion Club members, then to alumni and eventually the general public.

"If they are going to advertise tickets to Penn State alumni, they should close it off or find another way to do it," Chris Bartnik, a 1991 alumnus, said. "You want to have as many Penn State [fans] and as little Ohio State fans as you can."

Penn State is currently in the fourth year of a five-year contract with Ticketmaster that included only ticket distribution and the use of hardware, such as ticket readers, from an affiliate company. Ticketmaster recently requested that Penn State expand upon their current contract to include Internet ticket sales, so Ticketmaster handled sales instead of Penn State.

The change will eliminate all counter, telephone or mail-in sales, with the exception of group or away game orders, which will start July 18 if tickets remain after Internet sales.

Meredith said this year's change to Ticketmaster was made to help make purchasing faster for customers.

Meredith said once the information regarding ticket sales was released to the general public by Ticketmaster, there was no way to correct the problem alumni may have faced when attempting to buy football tickets. Meredith added that the information affected only the Ohio State game.

But not everyone was displeased with the switch to Ticketmaster for sales.

George Vay, a 1966 alumnus, said Ticketmaster seemed to be a more efficient system.

"I can honestly say I've never had problems with getting tickets here," he said. "No matter what way you do it you're going to have someone dissatisfied."

Ticketmaster could not be reached for comment.