Well, it’s happened again. The ETSU Bucs’ basketball team is headed to the Big Dance once again. For the second year in a row, the Bucs will be going to the NCAA tournament They play in the first round tomorrow against Cincinnati at 3 p.m. in Columbus, Ohio.
Now Ohio isn’t exactly a hop, skip and a jump away. In fact, it is a good six to seven hours distance from Johnson City. But, for a true Bucs fan, no distance is too great to support the team.
Fifty dollars a ticket isn’t exactly chump change either. That could buy groceries in at least one trip to Wal-Mart. But then again, it’s the Big Dance and the Bucs are sure to beat Cincy. This is worth eating Ramen noodles a few extra days a week.
Students can even wear their BUC WILD T-shirts that they bought just so they could congregate together in bright yellow shirts that have a picture of everyone’s favorite pirate on them. They’ll yell and cheer and scream at referees when they make a bad call.
But wait, they can’t get a ticket. Over half of the 550 tickets that were given to ETSU have been given out already. Alumni, donors, corporate sponsors, administrators and family members all got first dibs. Students aren’t exactly right up there on the list of those who deserve a ticket. The remaining tickets were first-come, first serve.
Now, it’s understandable letting family members of coaches and players have an opportunity to get tickets. The question is, why aren’t students considered important enough to join the ranks of donors and alumni?
Hello! We are the students of ETSU. We buy T-shirts, we paint our faces, we form fan squads that can’t really spell Bucs and reverse it instead.
Students’ names were put on a waiting list to get tickets. They didn’t automatically get one if they asked.
If a student is honestly willing to pay $50 and drive almost seven hours to Ohio, why shouldn’t they be given that opportunity? It’s bad enough that the game is in Cincinnati’s home state, which means Cincy will have a lot of support there. But now, a limit is being placed on students actually being able to go support the team.
The SGA just passed a resolution that asks for a system that will allow students the opportunity to get tickets to sporting events such as this. This is a good start. Now it’s time for the administration of ETSU to pick up the ball and act differently in the future because this will not be the last time that this situation arises.
The university and administration put money in front of the concerns of its students. As one professor put it the other day, students are seen as products far too often. Guess what? They are not products, they are people.
ETSU lost football because of a lack of funding and donors. Is the administration afraid of angering donors and losing those funds? Would ETSU lose basketball then? Sorry, just try and cut a championship team. It should be entertaining.
The teams should be ranked, not the importance of the fans. Students, donors, alumni, faculty and sponsors are all people. Sure, some people make more money than others, but the university still gets a nice piece of change from students. Student loans and Pell grants can vouch for that.
The administration needs to wake up and realize that the folks that bankroll their program are not the ones who make this university what it is today. It’s the students that continue to enroll. Start treating us as people instead of dollar signs.

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