Let's see ... starting in 2011, 800 new seats for one of the top rated (if not the top rated) student sections in the country: This sounds great on paper. I mean, student ticket sales always sell out pretty quickly. I remember my class's tickets sold out in 45 seconds last year, so it makes complete sense for more student seats.

But a lot has changed this year.

I was in the student section for only one game in 2009 because of my work schedule.

I also knew that one game would be the last Penn State game I would attend in the student section. On game day, I was pumped -- my energy was through the roof. I didn't even care that it was a match against Eastern Illinois. I knew that one of the main reasons I came to the games was the energy I felt being in the student section.

Alas, I was extremely disappointed. Not only was half of the student section empty, but also I could tell everyone's energy level was plunging below the level of excitement I get when going to the dentist. Needless to say, I left that game feeling frustrated -- I had brought my Penn State fan "A" game, but it felt as if no one else did.

The worst part, this has happened at a plethora of other games this season, too, including some of the big ones. I've seen it on the television screen. I've read it in the multitude of letters in The Daily Collegian. Something has changed with our student section within the past year and not for the better.

This got me thinking -- what's the biggest change from last year to this year? The thought hit me like a ton of bricks: the new ticketing system.

Think about it: If a student didn't want to (or couldn't attend) a game for whatever reason, that student couldn't pawn off or give away his ticket the day of the game. I know I received a ticket from someone my sophomore year only an hour before a game.

The old system, whether it caused excess scalping or not, was effective in filling up the student section. And before you give me the counter-argument that student scalping caused many non-ticket holders to spend a lot more money, I have a feeling that just as many got a free ticket from a friend.

I tried calling Greg Myford, associate athletic director, to see if the athletic department saw the current system as a probable cause for the spotty student attendance this season. Sadly, I had yet to receive a call back by press time last night.

But I now see it like this: Unless the new ticketing system changes or reverts back to the way it was -- and the schedule isn't filled with noon games against lackluster opponents -- then I foresee we are going to continue to notice a very empty-seeming student section for future games.

Just make the ticket exchange more user-friendly and extend the deadline to maybe two hours before the game begins -- it won't solve everything, but it'll definitely help. Maybe even allow tickets to be sold for less than the ticket price. I'll bet my tuition money that everyone will see a significant reversion to what our student section used to be.

So what sense does this all make? The changes made so far have caused spotty attendance in the student section, and now 800 seats are to be added to that section. The athletic department added a horrible ticketing system the same year the schedule had horrible home games at horrible times. That's a whole lot of horrible, and now the athletic department is trying to add 800 seats to this less-than-enticing experience? I can only hope that enough changes between now and the 2011 season that students will actually want to fill those seats.

Chris Bickel is a senior majoring in public relations and is The Daily Collegian's Friday columnist. His e-mail address is cdb5067@psu.edu.