Last year's system of purchasing season football tickets left a number of students frustrated at their Internet connection, and even angrier at those students who got tickets just to make a quick 'G' on Ebay. For the 2008 sale, Penn State knew it was time for a change.

We think this year's pre-registration and four-day ticket sale successfully solved the problem that buyers encountered last year, when the over-crowded Web site was blamed for students losing their spots in line.

Instead of having one day for students to log on and purchase a set of tickets, the sale spread over four days, one for each class at Penn State. Despite the usual setbacks like oversleeping, the new system was designed to make sure a higher percentage of students who actually wanted tickets could get them.

The senior class purchased tickets on the first day, then juniors the next, and so on. For seniors, tickets weren't completely sold out until that afternoon, while junior tickets were claimed in about 90 seconds.

Immediately, the outcries of the students began. Some students blamed Ticketmaster, claiming that the site crashed and couldn't respond to such high traffic. Others were frustrated that students had to pre-register weeks before the actual sale to have a chance at tickets.

Students who were studying abroad during the spring semester complained of not recieving emails informing them of the process. However, Penn State's associate athletic director of marketing and communication, Greg Myford, said many of these students found out about the changes through word of mouth.

Overall, we think it was a successfully executed plan, especially compared to the university's former lottery system. However, there are still some flaws. Even with the university setting aside a certain number of tickets for each class, the number of tickets remained the same, meaning there were still those who were disappointed.

In addition, those pesky scalpers are back, and have taken eBay by storm. Offers for a set of tickets, which sold for $204 at face value, were going as much as $1,500.

Some scalpers try to avoid the site's scalping restrictions by auctioning off something like a pen, along with a free set of student football tickets.

The bottom line is that until all seats in Beaver Stadium are student seats, there will always be students out there who end up disappointed with the system. And until that day comes, we think Penn State's system for purchasing student tickets is a step in the right direction.