A word of advice to the Penn State athletic department: When you are fortunate enough to have the No. 1 student section in the nation, it would be a good idea to make sure it can actually get in the game by the end of the first quarter.
I arrived at Gate A at noon Saturday, $27 ticket in hand, ready to see some live college football for the first time since November. Instead, I was greeted by a wall of people, a few thousand strong, all with the same problem: They couldn't get inside.
We couldn't get in because the new system of swiping student IDs had turned Beaver Stadium into I-80 during road work. You'll get where you're going, but you'll have to suffer first. Enjoy the wait.
So, my friends and I waited. We shuffled toward the ticket window a couple feet at a time, hearing the roars from inside but not being able to see anything for ourselves. By the time we made the ascent to our nosebleed seats, it was 12:50 p.m. -- about 13 minutes remaining in the second quarter, with the score 21-7 in favor of Penn State.
In a game like Saturday's, one that pits a college football behemoth against a no-name school that's getting paid to be slaughtered, there are only a few minutes when the contest is even remotely interesting. I, along with too many others, was on University Drive for that part of the game.
And it wasn't just the last-minute arrivals and the tailgating contingent that missed out. I talked to a friend who got to the gate at 11:30 a.m., only to miss kickoff by 20 minutes.
Bravo, Penn State. Once again, you've shown how in touch you are with the needs of the students. We don't care about seeing any pigskin, just that our attendance at the game is accurately captured by a computer system we know nothing about.
It turned out that this was the first step in achieving the perfect paperless system for distributing tickets -- at least that's what they're telling us. It's a difficult scenario to imagine, given the recent track record for ticket sales, but even if it works it needs to be implemented in a better way. Hour-long waits aren't going to cut it with this group of students, especially when they're anxious to unleash their wrath on a Wolverine or a Spartan instead of a Chanticleer.
If the university wanted to test a new system, why didn't they do so on Blue-White weekend? It seems like once or twice would be enough of a trial to get the general idea, but the athletic department plans on doing so for every home game this season. If that means six more debacles like last Saturday, things could get ugly.
It's not as bad for someone like me. I've been through this plenty of times. I've seen the Nittany Lions beat plenty of cupcakes during my years at Penn State. However, if a freshman's first memory of football games is standing shoulder-to-shoulder outside the stadium, being herded in like cattle while the first quarter ticks away, that's not exactly the best way to breed the next generation of fans.
Luckily for the university, they'll get a mulligan on this one. No one's going to remember Coastal Carolina a month from now.
This Saturday, there's a Pac-10 opponent coming to Happy Valley, and if the stadium is packed by kickoff, with a full student section losing its voice in unison, all will be forgiven.
Just keep this in mind, Penn State: We students are easy to please, but it's not a fancy ID system or a convoluted ticket distribution plan that's the key to our hearts. We just want to watch some football.
Paul Nordeman is a senior majoring in journalism and is The Daily Collegian's Wednesday columnist. His e-mail address is pjn5005@psu.edu.
