More on The Line

Along with the story about the Athletic Department's marketing initiatives that I wrote for today's paper, there was an important but brief sidebar that did not make it online. (As always, PDF here.)

The Athletic Department is likely to continue the controversial season-ticket policy it introduced last season. Student seats behind the west-end basket are general admission, with the lower level reserved for participants in The Line.

“We still occasionally have internal discussions,” senior associate director of athletics Alanna Shanahan said, “but at this point, we’re still holding to the fact that hopefully, long term, this will pay dividends."

Shanahan added that the Athletic Department is internally divided into two opinions. She declined to say where Athletic Director Steve Bilsky fit, or if he straddled both.

“There’s always a camp of people that say, ‘Lets set the standard and hold to it, and if our basketball program is as successful as we all hope, then we’ll be happy that we did this,’” Shanahan said. “Then there’s the other camp that says, ‘Wow, isn’t it painful? We have only maybe 50% of that section filled. Wouldn’t it be nice to allow, maybe five minutes into the game, studnets who are sitting in the upper level down to fill that section.'

“I think there are merits to both. And we’ll probably have that internal battle royal again in the next week or two. And that’s why I say it’s always a tough discussion.”

For now, though, it looks like the policy isn't changing.

"If you had to ask me today," Shanahan said yesterday, "I think we would hold to the protocol that we put in place and hope that the interest grows once again, the team success grows and once again, we have that section packed."

Expect more coverage on The Line as the date -- Oct. 9 -- draws nearer and as Penn makes its decision final.

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My colleague Noah Rosenstein reported last night on men's basketball recruit Cameron Gunter. The 6-foot-8 forward/center has spoken with the Philadelphia Inquirer and confirmed to them that he is, in fact, headed to Penn.