Babb leads Penn State to win over Robert Morris

By Benjamin Calla
Comm260 Writer
STATE COLLEGE — Many wondered if the Nittany Lions could win games if Talor Battle couldn’t produce. The Nittany Lions needed just five minutes to put those concerns to rest on Monday night.

After a back-and-forth first half, the Nittany Lions stormed out of the gate on a 20-4 run lead by the stellar three-point shooting of Chris Babb and a career night by Tim Frazier before coasting to an 80-61 victory against Robert Morris at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Freshman Tim Frazier and sophomore Chris Babb poured in 19 and 15 points respectively to lead the Nittany Lions (2-0) to their seventh straight win, the second longest in the nation behind only reigning champ North Carolina.

Frazier, playing in only his second career game, looked unguardable as he drained threes and sliced through the Colonials’ (0-2) defense on the way to a career high in his short time as a Nittany Lion.

Head coach Ed DeChellis was impressed with his freshman guard’s performance, but not surprised.
“It was good to get him some confidence,” Dechellis said. “We see that from him every day in practice.”

Babb started the second half by going 4-for-4 from beyond the arc, which helped extend a slim Penn State halftime lead and bring the 6,000-plus in the Jordan Center to life. To Babb, the latter was important.

“You have to get the crowd in the game,” said the 6-foot-5 guard from Texas. “It’s a big part of home field advantage.”

With Battle struggling to find his scoring touch, scoring only 8 points, the supporting cast was able to prove that they can win when their best player is unable to score at will.

“Talor is a great player, probably the best on our team,” said Babb, “but we’re not just a one man team.”
Head Coach Ed DeChellis agreed with his shooting guard.

“There are going to be night when (Talor) is going to need to do other things for us to win, I think he did those tonight,” DeChellis said.

Battle’s 8-point performance leaves him just 13 points shy of 1,000 for his career. Battle can reach the 1,000 point plateau when the Lions hit the road for the Charleston Classic Nov. 19-22. Their first game will be an ESPNU televised clash with UNC-Wilmington.

Paperless ticketing system is 'economically backward'

By Zack Feldman
Comm 260 writer

Just one year ago, sellers were willing to sell. Students were willing to buy. Penn State football fans who were willing to do whatever it took to attend a game made it inside the gates to watch the game.

Those were all frequent sightings at Beaver Stadium only one season ago, when students who wanted to see a game were able to buy and sell tickets freely. In the middle of another winning season, Penn State football’s fans are forced to use a new paperless ticketing system.

The new system is disrupting the old system by no longer allowing students to sell tickets at market value, forcing many of them to hold onto seats they’d rather sell.

“It’s economically backwards,” said Dirk Mateer, a lecturer in Penn State’s economics department. “If a person is willing to sell a ticket at $150 and a person is willing to buy at $150, both parties are better off. They took that away from students this year.”

Instead of paper tickets, which students are able to sell at market value and buy at market value, resale is permitted only on a Ticketmaster-hosted web site that governs the process. Students may only sell a maximum of six tickets, to deter them from selling all of their seats to make a profit.

Mateer said that dictating a minimum and maximum price — otherwise known as price floors and price ceilings — will hurt people buying and selling depending on the game,” Mateer said.

“During a hot game, sellers will be hurt by the policy. A lesser game might hurt buyers. It’s a lose-lose scenario,” Mateer said.

Penn State’s athletic department could not be reached for comment; however Greg Myford, associate athletic director at Penn State, said in a statement that he believes there is a clear benefit to the process.

“The elimination of paper game tickets and implementation of new ticketing system that will use student ID cards for game entry is believed to have kept students who wanted to resell tickets from participating in the (season ticket sale),” Myford said in the statement.

Not all students are comfortable with the new online system, which links students’ identification cards with their tickets.

“The site is impossible to use,” said Ben Burgess, 20, of Philadelphia. “I didn’t get season tickets, and now it’s impossible for me to get to see any of the good games this year.”

Burgess said he was “shut out” trying to find a ticket to the Sept. 26 Iowa-Penn State game, because no student was willing to sell theirs for the amount required by the student ticket exchange web site.

Andrew Hoffer is one student who was not willing to part with his Iowa ticket.

“Honestly, I was hoping to get back home for the weekend and make some money off the ticket,” Hoffer, 19, of Palmyra said. “But I wasn’t going to sell it for $60. I just stayed the weekend and went to see the game.”

Christian Dorflinger, 21, of East Stroudsburg, is a senior this year, yet he was unable to go to the biggest games of the year because of the lack of tickets available.

“I’m willing to pay for them like I did last year,” Dorflinger said. “I haven’t even tried to get them this year, though. The system doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Despite the possibly backward economics of the new system, students have found a loophole that allows them to sell tickets at higher prices.

Forwarding, or sending the rights to the tickets electronically, is one way sellers are able to scalp tickets successfully. Parties can agree to a higher than allowed price on the side and forward the ticket.

“If you can find someone willing to pay, you can meet up and forward them your ticket,” said Lacie Fuller, 19, of Pittsburgh. “I bought an Ohio State seat for $100 a week ago and I was happy to pay that much for such a big game.”

The problem facing the athletic department is that supply and demand both exist, however setting a maximum price doesn’t allow both parties to get the most out of a transaction, Mateer, the economics lecturer said.

Despite this, Myford insisted that the paperless ticket offering has worked in the past.

“We already tested the system this past basketball season and it worked quite well,” Myford said.