Collegiate Times

The results of the men's basketball season ticket lottery have caused uproar among many students, mostly upperclassmen, denied tickets through the lottery system.

Many seniors, especially those who have held season tickets for the past few seasons, believe that their dedication to men's basketball in the past should have given them priority in the lottery distribution system for this season.

Many juniors and seniors, specifically committed fans are upset that so many freshmen were allotted season tickets without establishing longstanding loyalty to the team.

For people who legitimately have not missed a past basketball game, and did not receive season tickets this year, we understand how frustrating that can be. C.A. "Sandy" Smith, associate athletic director for ticketing services, expressed that he had a pile of complaint letters from outraged students, all of whom had 'never missed a game.'

When they went through and scanned 10 games from last season, only one person out of all of those who filed letters of complaint had in fact not missed a game. Many of the students had only attended five out of the 10 games.

However, for those students who had not missed a game, some sort of loyalty system should be instituted because it rewards people who really do care.

We want a lot of people to have a basketball experience, but part of ticket distribution should be, in part, based on a loyalty system.

This loyalty system should come into play, but not be allowed to entirely determine who is given tickets. By rewarding those who have been allotted tickets in the past, you keep other students, who were denied the first time by chance, a sufficient opportunity to win tickets. By allowing a partial-loyalty system to determine who wins tickets, you allow students who did not get tickets in the past, to win them.

Ultimately there are more than 1,500 students at Tech who love men's basketball. Unfortunately, there is not enough room in Cassell for everyone. It is a little unfair, but not nearly as unfair as many people are making it out to be. Seniority does not matter as much in college as it did in high school.

Freshmen and seniors are allowed to eat in the same dining halls, and take the same classes, unless it is going toward your major. A graduating senior and first semester freshman both have the same opportunity to take World Regions, for instance.

While Ticketing Services could undeniably make improvements to make the system more fair and not based purely on random chance, at least right now everyone was offered an opportunity, even if it was far fetched.

The editorial board is composed of David Grant, Laurel Colella, David McIlroy, Sally Bull and Jackie Peters