Tickets are now on sale for the promising Buckeye Football ‘08 campaign. For those lucky enough to still be students during autumn quarter, tickets can purchased at HangOnSloopy.com For the less fortunate, good luck getting tickets this year. I’m sure you will be able to find some tickets for the right price.

The university announced that 30,000 tickets will be available to students. While the allotment of tickets has risen slightly from years past, so has the price of tickets. Students will be paying $124 for the Minnesota, Purdue, Penn State, and Michigan games (while school is in session). Options are also available to purchase the first 3 home games (Youngstown State, Ohio, and Troy) before autumn classes are in session. New this year, is the option to buy away games. Of course, USC sold out almost instantly; the last ticket rumored to be sold around 1 a.m. last Tuesday morning, around an hour after they went on sale.

Also, The Ohio State University athletic department and athletic council will also be tinkering and making some changes with the student seating once again. In efforts to make more money, (In my mind, attending a money thirsty university has its pitfalls, but I can’t complain too much. OSU athletics have spoiled us lately) OSU is shifting the students farther into the north end zone sliding them down almost completely into the end zone, which creates better seats for alumni and donors paying bigger bucks for tickets. This is disappointing for upper-class students who sat in undesirable seats their first few years waiting to gain in rank and getting better seats closer to mid-field. Rumors about the band being moved to the north stands are also abound, but nothing official has been released. The acoustics have a big deal with the locality of the band and it will be interesting to find out if they decide to move them. I would think they will stay where they currently sit because if the band sat in the north stands, the sound would easily travel out of the stadium and not reverberate in the Shoe. It would be awkward for Carmen Ohio to take place anywhere but the south stands.

Also, new in 2008 will be two organized student sections. Instead of just one Block O in the south stands, this year there will be another Block O in the north stands directly behind the field goal posts. The south stands Block O will be located where it normally has been in section 39A, while north Block O will occupy sections 1A & 2A.

A large portion of these 30,000 student tickets have already been sold. Obvious excitement for this upcoming football season has become rampant around campus. This was exhibited early last Tuesday morning, at 12:01 a.m., when thousands of students all logged on at the same time to buy tickets. The system was overwhelmed and forced thousands to wait patiently starring a countdown timer for their turn to log on and buy tickets. Some got lucky and got in early, and were able to purchase tickets for the USC game before they sold out in about an hour. Others like myself, waited past 3 a.m. to find out that the USC game was sold out.

All in all, it should be an exciting year for new and old students to attend football games. Changes were made; some for the betterment of the students and many for the worse. I guess we’ll find out this upcoming season.

Thoughts on the changes for this fall?