STEP Update: So You're Picking Friday Edition

I'll probably do another update over the weekend.

I also changed the bottom formula so that the delta reflects the number of seats that have changed since last June.  The delta at the top of the list is the change from the last update.  So 649 seats have moved off the available list from the nearly 4,000 extra seats we saw at the beginning of this year's selection process.

SECTION	Donation	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Delta
		6/8/2011	3/23/2012	3/30/2012	4/14/2012	4/19/2012
WB	$400	232	270	275	318	293	-25
WC	$400	25	159	88	44	30	-14
WD	600-2000	41	180	145	82	68	-14
WE	600-2000	12	9	5	6	6	0
WF	600-2000	37	200	142	87	60	-27
WG	$400	18	143	106	40	36	-4
WH	$400	302	339	371	385	383	-2
WJ	$100	6	131	55	19	19	0
NA	$100	18	172	163	97	63	-34
NB	$100	38	200	195	158	141	-17
NC	$100	40	207	229	229	195	-34
ND	$100	36	171	189	181	169	-12
NE	$100	48	193	199	234	211	-23
NF	$100	17	178	181	183	161	-22
NG	$100	35	176	188	220	221	1
NH	$100	30	167	175	220	229	9
NJ	$100	35	208	216	267	264	-3
NK	$100	36	173	205	267	274	7
NL	$100	39	207	213	208	202	-6
EJ	$100	14	101	102	26	26	0
EH	$400	518	428	434	451	451	0
EG	$400	60	165	162	102	86	-16
EF	600-2000	73	182	134	126	94	-32
EE	600-2000	0	1	1	1	1	0
ED	600-2000	389	249	199	167	130	-37
EC	$400	283	247	247	137	116	-21
EB	$400	148	108	92	73	76	3
WBU	$100	0	30	8	0	0	0
WCU	$400	477	581	585	583	595	12
WDU	$600	652	721	727	713	713	0
WEU	$600	303	361	368	339	339	0
WFU	$600	596	708	723	729	733	4
WGU	$400	318	489	491	497	493	-4
WHU	$100	1	102	48	7	4	-3
WJU	$100	25	147	132	81	79	-2
NAU	100-400	48	111	93	90	99	9
NBU	$100	53	56	72	75	83	8
NCU	100-400	121	107	107	129	148	19
NDU	100-400	94	93	107	102	108	6
NEU	100-400	105	142	128	144	164	20
NFU	100-400	40	82	90	116	130	14
NGU	100-400	65	80	94	99	103	4
NHU	100-400	78	51	53	77	81	4
NJU	100-400	126	113	111	137	143	6
NKU	$100	1	0	0	0	0	0
NLU	100-400	1	8	4	2	2	0
EJU	$100	31	265	309	370	364	-6
EHU	$100	9	138	126	132	82	-50
EGU	$400	1067	1153	1198	1242	1274	32
EFU	$600	882	985	1011	1012	1013	1
EEU	$600	762	877	855	865	875	10
EDU	$600	1444	1422	1414	1408	1410	2
ECU	$400	1541	1526	1534	1548	1547	-1
EBU	$100	2	68	56	46	54	8
SAU	$100	88	117	115	67	53	-14
SBU	$100	154	100	110	131	137	6
SCU	$100	125	109	123	155	169	14
SDU	$100	106	119	129	126	134	8
SEU	$100	26	42	42	40	48	8
SFU	$100	16	36	28	23	7	-16
SGU	$100	17	57	51	43	43	0
SHU	$100	87	118	122	118	128	10
SJU	$100	79	100	113	127	129	2
SKU	$100	113	95	99	145	143	-2
SLU	$100	101	117	117	115	109	-6
TOTAL		12284	16390	16204	15961	15741	-649	15%
100		2104	4887	4897	5006	4919	32	31.25%
400		4989	5608	5583	5420	5380	-228	34.18%
600+		5191	5895	5724	5535	5442	-453	34.57%

Oops!

The father of a current Crimson Tide player got his foot caught under a rug and sent the National Championship Crystal Trophy to the floor.  All of Saban's horses, and all of his men, couldn't put the trophy together again.



This is why your mom told you not to play football in the house



The handmade trophy sculpted in Ireland is valued at $30,000. The university previously had two such trophies, one at the Paul W. Bryant Museum and the other at the athletic facility. A university spokesman confirmed that they will immediately begin the process of replacing the trophy.

The crystal football has been a fragile piece in recent years. In 2008, Florida had its broken when then-recruit Orson Charles fumbled the ball away. In 2004, Florida State had a pair of trophies stolen from a glass case outside of coach Bobby Bowden's office during renovation of the building.

So one has to wonder who the starting player is, and will he still be a player next fall?  I hope there isn't a lot of competition at his spot!

STEP UPDATE: Tax Day Edition

Here's an update on the available seats as of this weekend (Saturday.)  I may post one more update next week if any one is interested (hint hint . . . leave me a comment so that I know that somebody besides Carolyn Todd is even reading this crap), but I don't think I can access the venue after I pay for the tickets and the due date is May 1st.  If I don't hear from anyone in the comment section, I may just skip doing any more updates.

There is statistically no real change in the total number of available seats (15%) but the actual number dropped by 243 seats.  The trend is still toward people moving from $100 seats to better locations.  Tomorrow, NLC members with 2-99 points start the selection/relocation process, which I presume will include new NLC members who currently do not have season tickets but donated at least $100 to get two points, and will be selecting for the first time.

So here is the breakdown of available seats.  The delta value reprsents the difference from the current # of seats available to the number available at the last update.  A negative number means there are FEWER seats available in that section and a positive means there are more available in that section than before.

SECTION	Donation	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Delta
		6/8/2011	3/23/2012	3/30/2012	4/14/2012
WB	$400	232	270	275	318	43
WC	$400	25	159	88	44	-44
WD	600-2000	41	180	145	82	-63
WE	600-2000	12	9	5	6	1
WF	600-2000	37	200	142	87	-55
WG	$400	18	143	106	40	-66
WH	$400	302	339	371	385	14
WJ	$100	6	131	55	19	-36
NA	$100	18	172	163	97	-66
NB	$100	38	200	195	158	-37
NC	$100	40	207	229	229	0
ND	$100	36	171	189	181	-8
NE	$100	48	193	199	234	35
NF	$100	17	178	181	183	2
NG	$100	35	176	188	220	32
NH	$100	30	167	175	220	45
NJ	$100	35	208	216	267	51
NK	$100	36	173	205	267	62
NL	$100	39	207	213	208	-5
EJ	$100	14	101	102	26	-76
EH	$400	518	428	434	451	17
EG	$400	60	165	162	102	-60
EF	600-2000	73	182	134	126	-8
EE	600-2000	0	1	1	1	0
ED	600-2000	389	249	199	167	-32
EC	$400	283	247	247	137	-110
EB	$400	148	108	92	73	-19
WBU	$100	0	30	8	0	-8
WCU	$400	477	581	585	583	-2
WDU	$600	652	721	727	713	-14
WEU	$600	303	361	368	339	-29
WFU	$600	596	708	723	729	6
WGU	$400	318	489	491	497	6
WHU	$100	1	102	48	7	-41
WJU	$100	25	147	132	81	-51
NAU	100-400	48	111	93	90	-3
NBU	$100	53	56	72	75	3
NCU	100-400	121	107	107	129	22
NDU	100-400	94	93	107	102	-5
NEU	100-400	105	142	128	144	16
NFU	100-400	40	82	90	116	26
NGU	100-400	65	80	94	99	5
NHU	100-400	78	51	53	77	24
NJU	100-400	126	113	111	137	26
NKU	$100	1	0	0	0	0
NLU	100-400	1	8	4	2	-2
EJU	$100	31	265	309	370	61
EHU	$100	9	138	126	132	6
EGU	$400	1067	1153	1198	1242	44
EFU	$600	882	985	1011	1012	1
EEU	$600	762	877	855	865	10
EDU	$600	1444	1422	1414	1408	-6
ECU	$400	1541	1526	1534	1548	14
EBU	$100	2	68	56	46	-10
SAU	$100	88	117	115	67	-48
SBU	$100	154	100	110	131	21
SCU	$100	125	109	123	155	32
SDU	$100	106	119	129	126	-3
SEU	$100	26	42	42	40	-2
SFU	$100	16	36	28	23	-5
SGU	$100	17	57	51	43	-8
SHU	$100	87	118	122	118	-4
SJU	$100	79	100	113	127	14
SKU	$100	113	95	99	145	46
SLU	$100	101	117	117	115	-2
TOTAL		12284	16390	16204	15961	-243	15%
100		2104	4887	4897	5006	109	31.36%
400		4989	5608	5583	5420	-163	33.96%
600+		5191	5895	5724	5535	-189	34.68%

JoePa Tribute

I didn't write this one (and perhaps more importantly, didn't SING this one,) but I still like it . . .

What To Do About Joe?

My loyal readers may have noted that I haven't posted much about Joe since his death.  It's just not a subject I wanted to talk about.  I'm not the kind of guy that expresses his feelings well.  Oh, you'll know whether I'm happy with the kicker or our starting quarterback, or how I feel about the coach's decision to punt instead of going for it on fourth down, but you won't find any touchy feely kind of emotions in this blog.

But now I am faced with an emotional dilemma.

What do I do with Joe?

I have two stand-up Joe's--the original (I think) in my home office, and one in my office at work (a later version in a suit.)

Do I leave them up?  Years of dust and bumping and moving around could wear and tear on them.  Would it be best to try and preserve them, away in a closet or attic?  Or should I proudly display them as I have done for years anyway, and let time take its ravages whatever the cost?

Right now, I just can't put Joe away.  But I must admit that a deep sadness comes over me whenever I look at him.  Then there is still the anger at how he was treated; the tragedy of the last months of his illustrious life.  We have known for years that there would some day be a Penn State without Joe Paterno.  We just didn't know it would come so soon.  So many emotions.  So few words to properly express them.

If you have a stand-up Joe, what are you doing with your Joe?

Joe Pa's Ghost Seen Walking on Park Avenue

Okay, it's April 1st, and I foolishly resorted to a prank to get you reading this, but hey, that's life.

I once had to pull an article on another site that I titled Joe Paterno Shot.  It was right after my house was broken into.  The police came and went through the house to make sure no one was still in there.  The officer who went in was talking to another officer afterward--a neighbor of mine--and he joked that the stand-up Joe in my office startled him when he went in that room and he shot him in the chest.  My neighbor wanted to check the cut out to see how good a shot he was.  We all laughed.  But apparently the title offended and misled some people, so live and learn.

But there is no ghost that I know of roaming State College tonight.

But there is some magic being worked on the recruiting trail by Bill O'Brien.  Here's Ben Johnson's take on the situation.

While O’Brien has yet to coach a game inside of Beaver Stadium, his impact on the football program’s future has already been felt.

As of Thursday, Penn State had received the verbal commitments from a quartet of four-star athletes, as well as five-star tight end prospect, Adam Breneman.

The sudden burst of success on the recruiting trail has been a welcome sight for Nittany Lions fans who have seen only one recruiting class rank in the Top 10 nationally since 2002, according to Rivals.com.

“What made Penn State good hasn’t changed.” Farrell said. “The locker room hasn’t changed the fans, the stadium, the history and tradition hasn’t changed. I didn’t think it would be this quick and immediate, but I knew Penn State would be better off with an active head coach. People don’t understand the limitations the staff was working with since around 2006 or so.


"When kids took visits to campus they limited the amount of time they spent with Joe. He wasn’t the kind of guy you could bring out and say ‘he’ll be your coach for the next five years’, Bill O’Brien is a guy you can trot out front and center and say ‘Hey, this is our guy.’
"It’s less about getting him off campus and more about the experience kids have when they visit on campus.”

Farrell says that O’Brien deserves a lot more credit for what he has done so far, despite losing on out Maryland transfer quarterback Danny O'Brien (Wisconsin), offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey (Notre Dame) and wide receiver Ryan Switzer (North Carolina).

"Kids have grown up wanting to play for Penn State, but that hasn’t landed them all there over the past five years. They’ve lost some of those guys, and now they’re not. That’s O’Brien.”

Penn State apparently hosted the top running back recruit in the state, David Williams, this weekend.

I could have titled this post DAVID WILLIAMS PICKS PENN STATE!

But that is not an April Fool's joke.  It's an aspiration.  And hopefully it will be a reality.

STEP UPDATE: March 30

There are still 16,204 seats available as of tonight at 10PM.  There was little movement in the overall numbers this week, with a shift from lower donation levels to higher donation levels.  This is to be expected since only NLC members with a lot of points can pick right now.  They are the ones that presumably want to improve their seat location or add seats to their account, and can afford to do so.

 Anne Danahy of the Centre Daily Times writes that ticket sales are down slightly.

Assistant Athletic Director Greg Myford said the Nittany Lion Club membership is just above the 20,000 mark so far. In 2011, there were 22,474 members, up from 21,577 in 2010.

Overall donations are up by $900,000 compared with last year for a total of $16.3 million, Myford said.

They can sugar coat the numbers all they want, but the reality is that there are about 4,000 more tickets available right now than there were in June at the end of the selection process last year.  Four thousand seats were given up.  All ticket holders have the option of retaining their seats, so even if they plan on moving up or down, their seats would not currently be listed as available.  And any move of equal seats from one giving level to another, wouldn't change the total of available seats.  The only factors that could see that number decrease are if people decide to ADD seats to their current package, or new members who never had seats before choose later in the process.

You might think that $900,000 in higher donations would reflect a profit.  But if you do the math . . .  at $385 per seat for a season ticket, times 4000 empty seats . . .  that works out to $1.54 million dollars in lost revenue if those seats aren't sold.  And that doesn't include the extra donation level fees for those seats that are lost if they go unsold.  Obviously, for many of the more attractive games, e.g. Ohio State and Wisconsin, those seats will get sold individually with no problem, so the overall math is fuzzy at this point.

Anyway, here is the breakdown after a week of trading:

SECTION	Donation	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Delta
		6/8/2011	3/23/2012	3/30/2012
WB	$400	232	270	275	5
WC	$400	25	159	88	-71
WD	600-2000	41	180	145	-35
WE	600-2000	12	9	5	-4
WF	600-2000	37	200	142	-58
WG	$400	18	143	106	-37
WH	$400	302	339	371	32
WJ	$100	6	131	55	-76
NA	$100	18	172	163	-9
NB	$100	38	200	195	-5
NC	$100	40	207	229	22
ND	$100	36	171	189	18
NE	$100	48	193	199	6
NF	$100	17	178	181	3
NG	$100	35	176	188	12
NH	$100	30	167	175	8
NJ	$100	35	208	216	8
NK	$100	36	173	205	32
NL	$100	39	207	213	6
EJ	$100	14	101	102	1
EH	$400	518	428	434	6
EG	$400	60	165	162	-3
EF	600-2000	73	182	134	-48
EE	600-2000	0	1	1	0
ED	600-2000	389	249	199	-50
EC	$400	283	247	247	0
EB	$400	148	108	92	-16
WBU	$100	0	30	8	-22
WCU	$400	477	581	585	4
WDU	$600	652	721	727	6
WEU	$600	303	361	368	7
WFU	$600	596	708	723	15
WGU	$400	318	489	491	2
WHU	$100	1	102	48	-54
WJU	$100	25	147	132	-15
NAU	100-400	48	111	93	-18
NBU	$100	53	56	72	16
NCU	100-400	121	107	107	0
NDU	100-400	94	93	107	14
NEU	100-400	105	142	128	-14
NFU	100-400	40	82	90	8
NGU	100-400	65	80	94	14
NHU	100-400	78	51	53	2
NJU	100-400	126	113	111	-2
NKU	$100	1	0	0	0
NLU	100-400	1	8	4	-4
EJU	$100	31	265	309	44
EHU	$100	9	138	126	-12
EGU	$400	1067	1153	1198	45
EFU	$600	882	985	1011	26
EEU	$600	762	877	855	-22
EDU	$600	1444	1422	1414	-8
ECU	$400	1541	1526	1534	8
EBU	$100	2	68	56	-12
SAU	$100	88	117	115	-2
SBU	$100	154	100	110	10
SCU	$100	125	109	123	14
SDU	$100	106	119	129	10
SEU	$100	26	42	42	0
SFU	$100	16	36	28	-8
SGU	$100	17	57	51	-6
SHU	$100	87	118	122	4
SJU	$100	79	100	113	13
SKU	$100	113	95	99	4
SLU	$100	101	117	117	0
TOTAL		12284	16390	16204	-186	15%
100		2104	4887	4897	10	30.22%
400		4989	5608	5583	-25	34.45%
600+		5191	5895	5724	-171	35.32%