For University of Wisconsin students, nothing compares to spending Saturdays at Camp Randall. Standing uncomfortably close to strangers who smell of sweat and stale beer while screaming “Build Me Up Buttercup” at the top of your lungs — what’s not to love?

Unfortunately, if you weren’t lucky enough to get season tickets through the Wisconsin Athletic Ticketing Office you will probably be paying an arm and a leg to be a part of one of the nation’s greatest collegiate game day experiences.

A majority of students will acquire single game tickets through The UW-Madison Ticket Exchange, a Facebook page dedicated to buying and selling tickets for various events around UW.

Tickets sold on this website are supposed to be sold at face value and not used as a money making process. Anybody who has used this page knows this simply isn’t the case.

In order to combat students selling tickets above face value, The Wisconsin Athletic Ticketing Office should make affordable student-section tickets available for purchase each week.

Take Arizona State University for example. Their student section tickets are given on a first-come, first-served basis each week to ensure that students aren’t overpaying. We could use this same idea here at UW.

Though the idea of making a few extra bucks on student tickets is appealing, it is illegal and creates bad Badger relations.

The city of Madison does not allow the resale of tickets above face value. In fact, UW doesn’t allow the sale of anything on school property without a permit. And all this information is clearly written on the ticket exchange Facebook page.

Obviously, a relatively unenforced city ordinance is not enough of a deterrent for the student looking to make $50 on a roughly $28 football ticket.

Selling student tickets above face value is not a question of economics, but a question of principle.

Badgers shouldn’t be taking advantage of other Badgers. It’s that simple. We should be looking out for our fellow students, not trying to squeeze every last penny out of them like the last drop of beer at a Saturday morning kegger.

Selling game day tickets on a weekly basis diminishes these problems. And that extra money that we save can be spent on more important things — like beer, brats and Badger gear.

Sam Vander Plas ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in communications.