During the last year — between labeling all governments as terrorist organizations and telling President Obama to “suck my tits” — I’ve written my share of controversial columns.But, if my intuition is correct, this will probably be my most contentious topic ever.So before I get started, let me clarify.I have no burning desire or intention to see the administration reduce the student section.But given the recent suckage displayed by part of our student section, I do want what is best for our football program.With that said, I’ll proceed, knowing full well most of the people I’m targeting will instinctively stop reading at the halfway mark and go home.The average number of student “no-shows” last year was roughly 2,200 per game, according to the Athletic Department.Do the math, and you’ll discover these empty seats are hardly as harmless as they seem.For example, student season tickets cost $92. Regular season tickets, on the other hand, once you combine the cost of season tickets with the mandatory tradition fund fee, will be worth roughly $610 by the 2010 season.Multiply these numbers by the 2,200 wasted seats, and the Athletic Department could have earned more than $1.15 million off unused student tickets alone.None of that even considers the thousands of discounted “club/organization” seats inside the 20-yard-lines, which is where the big bucks really roll in, nor does it account for the additional donations the Tiger Athletic Foundation would likely receive from new season ticket holders.This additional revenue could have been used for more practical purposes, such as helping to build a new band facility, improving the existing student section or even increasing the capacity of Tiger Stadium.Some might argue it’s unfair to punish the students when the rest of Tiger Stadium also suffered from more no-shows last season. The difference, however, is an apathetic fan still generates revenue for the University, whereas apathetic students essentially squander millions.Besides, it’s not at all fair to the passionate incoming freshmen who don’t even get a shot at student tickets.Very simply, if part of the student section continues to hemorrhage revenue, nobody benefits, especially the little guy who has to pay extra for scalped tickets from opportunistic upperclassmen.With that said, here’s my proposal to the Athletic Director:Next summer, simply announce the number of student no-shows from the least attended game will be transferred to the general public in the future (barring catastrophic rain, etc.).In this system, rather than having tickets stripped away unjustifiably, students can actually control whether they retain all their seats.It’s fair and simple. And if students have a gripe, they can just put their ticket to use and encourage their more apathetic friends to give their tickets to someone who actually cares.This plan would also help promote more innovative tactics.Future ordering periods, for example, could be determined by priority points rather than classification level.Another pragmatic change would be to start selling additional student tickets based on the amount of seats still available near kickoff. Everyone already knows the late-shows are usually the halftime hikers anyway.The main point of this discussion, really, is to show how real progress can be made once we open our minds to different alternatives.In the end, my goal is the same as everyone else’s — to pack our student section every game and provide the best possible game-day environment.And that’s something I’m sure we can do, should we accept this challenge.Ultimately, our objective shouldn’t merely be to provide universal access, but to encourage better efficiency and optimal results so everybody benefits.Just don’t try telling that to universal government health care proponents.Scott Burns is a 20-year-old history and business sophomore from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter@TDR_sburns.—-Contact Scott Burns at [email protected]