I read the CW article and all 14 pages of this thread. The thing that I take from this is that there is a failure of the University and Athletic Department to address the issue of unused student tickets which causes a large section of empty seats.
The 12,000 number has been thrown around a few times for the lower bowl. If that is correct than it would seem that this would be a reasonable number for the student section since that is around the average for attendance.
The big issue then would be restructuring the student ticket allocation. If they don't, you will have around 8,400 students sitting in that 12,000 seat section (70%). There has to be a system put in place to allow students to purchase tickets for a game they intend on going to, and removing the issue of students who are buying the tickets with the sole intent of reselling them.
- I believe adding extra rules (staying through the 3rd quarter, forfeiting bowl games, etc) is NOT the answer.
- The tickets should be NON-transferrable.
- If you can't or decide not to go, turn your ticket back in. Heck give the student back their $5 or $10 bucks or whatever it is.
- A simpler system that gets tickets to students that truly intend to be there will result in fewer no-shows. At a certain point before the game (15-30 min) any unused seating could then be sold to other students in a "last-chance" line. The line would likely be relatively short knowing that there would be a small amount of tickets coming available.