With number 736,627 wrapped around her wrist, Maureen O'Malley (senior-international politics and history) led a line of more than 2,000 students to the Bryce Jordan Center ticket office to buy Orange Bowl tickets yesterday.

"I've never won anything before. My friends told me I should play the lottery," she said. "I should play my wristband number."

O'Malley, a former Paternoville resident, said she skipped her 10:10 a.m. racquetball class on Wednesday to get a wristband.

"I went to a later section. My teacher didn't believe us at first, and he said we were wasting our time coming here. He thought it was funny," she said.

Associate Athletic Director of Marketing Greg Myford told the seated students that 4,770 wristbands were distributed, and 2,070 tickets would be distributed.

"This is the highest student ticket demand for a bowl game ever," Myford said.

Penn State was allocated 18,000 tickets by the Orange Bowl. Penn State has allotted more tickets for the Nittany Lion club and season ticket holders than students, but Myford would not specify how those groups would receive tickets. More student tickets were distributed than expected because Orange Bowl officials gave Penn State more tickets, Myford said.

When the starting wristband number was announced, students cheered, hugged and high-fived each other.

"It's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Jenny Shular (sophomore-business) said as she waited in line for a ticket. "This is the kind of thing I'll tell my kids about."

However, more than 2,000 students weren't as lucky as O'Malley and Schuler, and hundreds left the Bryce Jordan Center (BJC) as soon as the starting wristband was announced.

"This is a stupid system," Charles Debree (senior-computer and electrical engineering) said. "They should've

used a walk-up sale and let students camping out buy tickets first. That way, the students who wanted it the most would get tickets."

Other students expressed their anger about the manner in which the tickets were sold and complained to Myford and other officials.

Tom Arnold (senior-archeology) said his friend left the BJC to tell a professor he would miss a test and couldn't get back in the BJC.

"The paper they handed out with the wristbands said we would get in line at 8 a.m. or lose our place in line," Arnold said. "It shouldn't take more than an hour just to get in line. Most people have exams this week."

Ian Cannon said he was upset a member of his group was denied a ticket because he left the BJC early yesterday morning for an exam.

"This is the most ridiculous thing in the world," Cannon said. "They didn't consider people with exams, and I don't know why they would do it this way. They said there was nothing we could do, and there's no one we can talk to."

Overall, the ticket sale went well, but the athletic department would evaluate the distribution's shortcomings, Myford said. He added that the process took longer than he expected and that the athletic department didn't anticipate that students would have tests this week.

"We realized there would be some missed class time, but finals week is next week," Myford said.

Other students near the cutoff lingered at the BJC hoping for extra tickets, and some were rewarded around noon, four hours after students first arrived at the BJC.

Ryan Olivastri (senior-electrical engineering), who was 150 people after the cutoff, said he almost missed turning in a paper.

"I made it at the very end of the class and got to turn it in. I know a lot of other people who cut class," he said. "Without a student ticket, I would try to go to the bowl, but I have a price limit of about $200."