Gillian Van Stratt

My grandparents had season tickets in the North End Zone at Beaver Stadium for decades. Whenever they could snag extra tickets, we'd make the two-hour drive to games, tailgating with Sheetz hoagies. They eventually gave them up because they got sick of spending their Saturdays in the rain and cold for a ho-hum spectacle. I have wonderful childhood memories of some of those games, like when we lost to Iowa in 1996. Today, the cheapest season ticket in that end zone starts at $550. I went to Penn State, like most of my family, and made it to a few games a season. The team was mostly mid in my years (Anthony Morelli, anyone?) and I was pretty broke, so most Saturdays I picked up shifts at Toftrees instead, and I sold my tickets to the big games for beer money. My family back in PA still goes to a game or two a year. So I say this with love: college football needs a long look in the mirror. The college football military-industrial complex asks you to make it your entire personality; the more it looks and feels like a cult instead of a compelling way to spend a Saturday, the more it repels smart people who would rather spend their time and money elsewhere. That goes double in the NIL era, when players are free agents, and fans are the only ones still expected to stay loyal. Schools seem to think fans and alumni have an unlimited-money glitch and won't take care of their own wants and needs first instead of tithing to the place they once spent a few formative years early in their lives. Penn State is spending $700 million renovating Beaver Stadium, and when it's done, a 20-yard-line seat on the new west side will run $2,375 a season. Club seats will be $4,900, after a $10,000 "capital gift" for the privilege of buying one. Frankly, it's insulting. It costs way more than the experience is worth. We're supposed to treat Saturdays like a blood oath, and to look the other way every time the school on our diploma (...and the news-making culture around it) finds a new way to embarrass us. All this stuff just gets pushed on you like a boomer forwarding an AI video and waiting for you to be amazed. Thirty years ago, college football was the only show in town on a fall Saturday. Now people have endless ways to spend a weekend with friends and family, and plenty of them feel zero guilt or FOMO about skipping the drive to Happy Valley to sit in those stands "for the glory of Old State" because it's a low-ROI activity for the emotional investment.

A new year begins today. What's your advice for incoming Spartans?

“Did you hear?” The Fire’s 2026 Debut Season Schedule is finally here 🗣️ It’s good to be back🔥

New from me: There's some context missing from all of the conversation about Lynn Jones Turpin, the Black journalist who went viral for her words to the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach whatimreading.net/p/jacksonv…