"Grateful Red." This is usually in reference to the red Grateful Dead-style tie-dye T-shirts worn by the students, but after the student tickets for the upcoming season were distributed, there is now more justification for the nickname.

Despite over 7,500 requests for student season tickets, those sitting in the student section this year will be part of the 3,000 that beat the odds to get partial or full-season tickets. The student section has become a grateful group indeed.

With a limited number of seats available for students (fewer than 2,000 out of the Kohl Center's capacity of 17,000+), regardless of how the tickets are doled out, it’s inevitable that some students are going to be left disappointed. Admittedly, the athletic department is put in a tough position when it comes to figuring out a way to please as many students as possible without causing complete chaos.

This year, students’ chances at tickets were weighted by their class standing and the number of times they've tried to get tickets in the past.

Trying to give an advantage to some students when determining who gets tickets and who doesn't is a good start, but it can be taken a step further.

At the University of Maryland, another high-profile basketball program, students do not even have the option of buying season tickets. Instead, students are encouraged to order them online prior to the game they want to attend.

When the supply exceeds the demand, everyone's a winner. When more students want to attend games than there are available seats, the school weighs each student's loyalty to the athletic department (by attendance at any UM sporting event, not just basketball) in determining who gets the coveted tickets. Additionally, those students who receive tickets but do not show are penalized for future games (this point becomes especially relevant later in the column.)

This policy takes into account the type of student applying for tickets. After all, if someone's a big enough fan of the university's athletics to attend soccer games and volleyball matches, don't they deserve some sort of priority over students who can't tell you who Bo Ryan is?

When applying to the school of business or journalism or just trying to get into UW to begin with, students are judged on more than just their class standing. A group of specific criteria is used in deciding who's worthy of admission and who is not. Under a new system, students could be forced to submit an application to the athletic department that would explain why they are worthy of being awarded tickets.

Or, the athletic department could try a different approach and get rid of lottery systems and applications entirely.

Students at Big Ten rival Northwestern trying to attend Wildcat home games merely need to show up early enough on the day of the game to get in as part of the school's "first come, first serve" admissions policy. Granted, the policy would have its drawbacks at a school like UW that has a bigger fan following, but the advantages would outweigh the disadvantages. Even though students would undoubtedly line up hours before noteworthy games against opponents like Indiana and Illinois, missing class or work in the process, it's hard to believe too many students would camp out to see schools like Edgewood College or Wofford.

Criticizing those who put the system in place is easy enough, but there is a second culprit worthy of mention that's making it difficult for many UW students to enjoy basketball games this season: those students who are abusing the less than perfect system that is currently in place.

The start of the season is still a few weeks away and already some lottery winners have started cashing in by putting their season tickets on eBay. For a price much greater than they bought them for, these students are hoping to capitalize on the die-hard basketball fans that didn't win tickets. Students like these eBay sellers are exactly the type that a different system would eliminate.

If you want to win tickets just so you can sell them on the Internet, fine. But instead of just clicking a few icons on a website, the alternative distribution policies would force students like these to either wait out in the cold for a few hours or attend lots of other UW sporting events; these entrepreneurial students would really have to earn their profit.

Perhaps even worse than those hawking their tickets, though, are those that don't use their tickets. Unless every single basketball game involves a packed student section this season (highly unlikely considering the Badgers’ non-conference schedule), there are going to be fans out there who won tickets despite having little interest in the basketball team. If the team can't continue with the success they had last season, these students will quickly be exposed.

In an ideal world, those students who received tickets should have to attend a screening of "Saving Private Ryan" before the start of the season just so the image of a dying Tom Hanks imploring Matt Damon to "earn this" can be put into their heads before they start selling or ignoring the tickets they were lucky enough to win.

Mike is a sophomore majoring in journalism. If you''d like to offer him another solution to the lottery system, or tickets, he can be reached at [email protected]