Anyone could have predicted that getting your hands on men’s basketball student season tickets… Anyone could have predicted that getting your hands on men’s basketball student season tickets would be tough. The team had an outstanding season last year and is highly ranked in preseason polls. Some probably already had plans to camp out for hours, even days, before the first-come, first-served tickets went on sale.

But people with those plans will be disappointed. Getting your hands on season tickets will not only be competitive, but complicated. Instead of first-come, first-served ticketing, the Pitt athletics department has determined that a complex lottery system will be the “fairest” way to distribute the tickets.

Of the 1,500 tickets allocated for students, 1,000 will be offered through the lottery – a ridiculous process beginning four hours before Midnight Madness on Friday night. There, students can obtain a numbered wristband. On Saturday, the winning numbers will be posted, and students will have from Monday until Wednesday to purchase their season ticket ID cards for $20.

The remaining seats will be available on an individual game basis for $5. Students can redeem their seats two hours before the game with their ticket ID cards and Pitt IDs.

Complexity aside, nothing will be able to take the spirit out of campus as it winds up for Midnight Madness and the subsequent season. With that in mind, let’s take a minute to think about the athletics department’s devotion to its own spirited motto: Commitment, Teamwork, Pride.

Commitment: Way to be committed to the student fan base.

First, they build us the Pete. Then, they offer us a small portion for student seats. They follow this with a convoluted process to obtain tickets.

Beyond making the ticketing process terribly painful, the athletics department is certainly undercutting its own goal of making sure that all student seats are filled every game. The tickets IDs could prevent the seats from being transferable and, thus, ensuring empty seats when students can’t make games.

And so much for fairness. If students are – for some reason other than the Notre Dame football game – unavailable Friday night, they will be plain out of luck.

Teamwork: Way to work with the University. The athletics department “consulted” Student Government Board. Students have to wonder what their elected student leaders were thinking. Who on earth would have thought this a better system than the tried-and-true first-come, first-serve method? Memo to Kevin Washo Jr.: What were you thinking?

Pride: Way to inspire pride. It’s awful hard to be proud when this is how students are treated. Next time, let us have spirit and demonstrate it too – simplify the system. Cut out the ID cards and the two-hour-before-the-game business. Just let the faithful wait in line.