Rewarding upperclassmen for their dedication is important in maintaining goodwill across campus and opportunities like tickets to the University of Texas football game are the icing on a four-year cake for seniors. With that being said, the guidelines, or lack thereof, enforced in the lottery to decide who would receive the 800 allotted student tickets show the officials in charge of organizing ticket distribution copped out. Plain and simple.

The 800 tickets made available to students – even with it being only 21 percent of the allotment – is somewhat reasonable. It’s understandable that boosters, alumni and sponsors could snag a good amount of the 3,800-ticket allotment,

What is mind-boggling about the situation is the fact that university officials refused to place an order of seniority in its lottery formula. Explanations of making it fair to everyone – whether they were away from Fort Worth or out of the country – regardless of classification are just not sufficient or logical enough to be taken seriously.

How is a die-hard Frogs football fan supposed to react during his or her senior year when the fan discovers a freshman secured the hottest ticket of the year, while the senior is left out in the dark? Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while, but did it have to happen now?

Other than the lack of a system is the reminder that money from the deep pockets of boosters and alumni will overrule students 10 out of 10 times. Even at TCU, where the students are lucky not having to pay for home football games, university officials could not resist getting a piece of the pie for the Austin trip. Money wins, and unfortunately, that is just a part of life.

But the random lottery? Well, let’s just say a blind squirrel will be eating like a king on Sept. 8.

Sports editor Tim Bella for the editorial board.