Pitt sophomore Ian Smith is evidence that the revamped men’s basketball student-ticket policy… Pitt sophomore Ian Smith is evidence that the revamped men’s basketball student-ticket policy is working.

Smith is undefeated when it comes attending home games – he hasn’t missed one yet. He was in The Oakland Zoo for the season opener against Saint Peter’s, and over winter break he was there for the games against Vermont and Coppin State. After all, it wasn’t hard to get tickets; they were readily available as tip-off approached.

Now, excitement surrounding the undefeated Panthers is growing, opponents are getting better and Zoo tickets are become harder to come by. Pitt’s victory against DePaul was the first game in which student tickets sold out, meaning the nut of the new policy, a weighted distribution that gives an advantage to students who attend more games, had to be cracked for the first time.

Wednesday night, Smith checked his student-ticket account online, looking to see if he was allocated a ticket for Monday night’s nationally televised showdown with Syracuse. Would Smith, a super fan, be left out of The Zoo in favor of students looking to attend their first game of the season?

“By the way, I got a ticket,” he said.

The odds were in Smith’s favor, after all. By attending each of the Panthers’ first 10 home games, and designated women’s games, he was not only able to witness firsthand one of the biggest surprises in college basketball, but he also earned loyalty points. As a result, his odds of witnessing future Pitt home games increased, and when the distribution had to be used, his loyalty was rewarded with a ticket.

Increased odds, however, are no guarantee. Smith is considered a Zoo leader by those who attend games with him, but he could still miss out on future games if the distribution doesn’t lean in his favor. He is confident that his loyalty will continue to pay off in the form of tickets, and regardless, the idea of missing out doesn’t bother Smith.

“That’s part of being a leader,” Smith said prior to the DePaul game. “You do it for the better of the group. If you don’t get a ticket that game, you don’t get a ticket.”

That attitude is what impresses Chris Ferris, assistant athletic director in charge of marketing and promotions when it comes to Pitt’s student basketball fans.

“They’re passionate about seeing the stands full, and in support of our teams,” Ferris said. “Even though they may find themselves in a situation where they didn’t get a ticket, they’re still excited about the leadership they provided, and that the stands are full for our team. They see bigger than their personal self.”

When Ferris helped design the student-ticket policy, he had students like Smith in mind.

“We wanted to take care of the students, and do it well,” Ferris said. “We wanted a policy that accommodates everybody.”

The new policy does that. Last season’s policy dictated that students with season tickets pick their individual game tickets up in batches at the ticket office. When tickets weren’t picked up, they were made available to the general student body. Unfortunately, many students were unaware of when this happened. Even worse, students who picked up tickets would not attend at times.

This season, the combination of an informative, easy-to-use Web site and the loyalty point system has helped to combat those problems.

“The goal isn’t to try and split atoms with this policy,” Ferris said. “We wanted to make it easy as possible.”

Everything a student needs to know about season tickets is now posted online; tickets can be printed in dorm rooms and apartments, and those who have a ticket and don’t attend are less likely to get future tickets and they are docked loyalty points, which represent the student’s probability of getting tickets.

Prior to the DePaul game, during a span that included 10 home games, 8,330 students had watched home games from The Zoo. Last season that number was 6,997. The Zoo seats 1,400 students; the increase in attendance from last year is 1,333, or almost one full Zoo.

And, better yet, the team is undefeated.

“Students are key, they are great fans,” Ferris said. “They’re a big part of 15-0.”