How much are your football memories worth? For many Georgia faithful, time spent between the hedges is priceless, but for a growing number of University students – call them the unfaithful – even the slightest financial profit is enough to forfeit their college football Saturday.

Scalping of football tickets by students is a major problem on this campus, despite University policy against it. As a transfer student in 2004, I received tickets to three home games – Georgia Southern, Marshall and LSU.

For the rest of the season, desperate to watch the Bulldogs, I was at the mercy of scalpers who exploit their fellow students.

I attended every home game that year, but paid a heavy price – most notably $100 to watch my team fall to Tennessee.

Three years later, the scalpers still have no conscience, but they have grown in their boldness. These opportunists now have the audacity to go public with the prostitution of their tickets.

Several groups go online to Facebook to “exchange” football tickets. One group, “The UGA Ticket – Buy/Sell/Trade – Mart,” promotes itself as a place where you can “feel free to scalp yourself bald.” The group’s message board is filled with posts by students offering tickets for the best offer. I am disheartened by students eager to auction off their tickets, but at least I comprehend the financial motivation behind it. What I don’t understand is the University’s position on scalping.

Yes, the University Athletic Association Web site warns “price gouging other University students who want to support our football program will not be tolerated,” but the ticket office makes no apparent effort to catch students who do so.

The student ticket manager, Kelley Lawrence, told me the University relies on students to turn in their peers for scalping.

Lawrence said in an interview the office receives only a couple of calls a week from students complaining about ticket scalping. We all know – as Lawrence must know – the majority of bad guys are not being caught.

I propose the ticket office offer rewards for students who identify these price gougers, accompanied by tangible proof, of course.

Rewards could include a small discount on a ticket purchase or a guarantee that helpful students can purchase bowl game tickets at the end of the season, or away game tickets of their choice for the following season.

If there is a reward, students will be motivated to blow the whistle on offenders. We could shut down price gouging this way.

I realize opponents of my idea will argue the University’s current indifference indicates it will not really try to stop ticket scalping. However, I believe the University’s apathy is due to its current ignorance of how much money is being made on the resale of its tickets.

If the University really cares about the interests of students, it will become more proactive in fighting scalping.

After all, if we can’t rely on the University to enforce its own policies on underhanded activities such as ticket scalping, in what sort of “culture of honesty” are we living?

- Patrick Yawn is a senior from Savannah majoring in newspapers.