Late last month, the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) voted down a proposal that would alter the distribution of student tickets for Penn State football games.

Many students were unhappy with the current method, a traditional first come, first served system, which had worked fairly well most of the time.

However, after the 2005 season students became excited about the rebirth of Penn State football, and tickets sold out at a remarkable rate.

The demand for 2006 tickets and the unknown date of when students would be able to purchase them left many upperclassmen without tickets.

Maybe it was because they weren't accustomed to the frenzy.

In previous years, tickets remained months after they originally went on sale.

Nevertheless, students believed there was a problem with the system and demanded it be fixed.

The proposed plan would first make tickets available to seniors at all branches, then juniors at all campuses.

Remaining tickets would then be offered to freshmen and sophomores at University Park followed by freshmen and sophomores at all commonwealth campus.

At first, the proposed method seems fine. It awards seniority and University Park students, who pay the most out of all the students in the Penn State system.

But upon further review, not only is this not the answer, it appears that the current system may be the best method, and the only thing that needs to change is the communication between the athletic department and the student body.

There were several problems with the plan proposed to UPUA.

The goal of the athletic department should be to get the most passionate fans into the stadium.

Theoretically, those people would be more inclined to purchase tickets the earliest.

Older students do not necessarily fill that criterion. Older fans are not necessarily better fans.

As is the case with many schools with big-time athletics, there is a passionate alumni base for Penn State, many of whom donate to the athletic department and university.

Often, their kids go to one of the Penn State campuses and have grown up following the football team.

To not offer these lifelong fans tickets could anger the contributors to the school.

It seems as though the only thing the athletic department needs to do is send out more notices regarding when tickets go on sale.

While it is unfortunate that many upperclassmen did not get tickets this year, there is nothing anybody can do about procrastination and unparalleled demand.

If the system's not broke, then don't fix it.

But maybe advertise it a little better.