It’s time to find out who sits where this upcoming football season.
Kansas University starts its Select-A-Seat event at 11 a.m. today for Jayhawk football games at Memorial Stadium this fall. Williams Fund members who have season tickets have been mailed a letter informing them when their date and time is to pick where they want to sit. Members with higher priority-point totals go first.
The seating takes place at Memorial Stadium through Thursday, then finishes May 22-23.
The selected seats will be good for KU’s seven 2007 games at Memorial Stadium – against Central Michigan, Southeast Louisiana, Toledo, Florida International, Baylor, Nebraska and Iowa State.
An eighth game is on KU’s season-ticket package, however. That’s the Border War matchup with Missouri, slated to be played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 24. With the different seating layout and the fact that Mizzou will get a large chunk of tickets, there will be no selecting of seats for that game.
“We are assigning those seats based on point order,” associate athletic director Jim Marchony said.
And while it’s part of KU’s season-ticket plan, it’s not necessarily going to have a pro-KU atmosphere that day. Arrowhead, which holds 79,451, has been split up, with the two schools receiving an equal allotment of tickets.
“I don’t know how many seats Kansas and Missouri are going to end up taking because there will be seats open to the general public,” Marchiony said. “But, for example, the lower level is split up 50-50.”
¢ Sales up: Marchiony said that KU football season-ticket sales have crept over the 18,000 mark – up more than 2,500 from this time a year ago.
Kansas sold roughly 29,000 season tickets for the 2006 season.
The biggest reason for the projected increase was a priority-points online promotion in February, during which season-ticket purchasers received 10 points per ticket instead of the usual five.
¢ Digging out: Though KU’s football team avoided any penalties with the latest Academic Progress Rate numbers released last month, it did rank last among the Big 12 Conference’s pigskin programs.
The APR multiyear rate averages the last three years of academic standing and players leaving school to come up with a percentage. The decimal is moved back one digit to come up with a number that is used to evaluate academic success among school’s athletic programs.
KU football had a multiyear score of 918, which ranks last in the Big 12. Texas A&M was next lowest with a 922. Kansas State had a 926 to rank ninth. Texas led all programs with a 944 score.
Jayhawk officials are quick to point out, however, that KU football’s single-season APR rate has gone up every year, including a peak single-year score of 945 for 2005-06. Therefore, barring a huge step backwards in the future, KU’s multiyear average is expected to keep climbing.
¢ Up next: KU’s football players are getting some time off to take finals and get a breather. But it’s short-lived.
The Jayhawks will get ready for the season’s grind by doing a rigorous summer-conditioning program under strength coach Chris Dawson. The first day of workouts is June 4.
The summer program is considered optional, but, as they say, the coaching staff also has the option not to play those who don’t show up.
That said, 100 percent attendance is expected.
