For the first year ever, students can ditch the illegal way of handing off their student ticket to other students who did not get to buy tickets. 
 The Mississippi State University Student Association worked with the Ticket Office to implement a new policy for the 2016-2017 football season that allows students to transfer their student tickets electronically to other students.
  MSU tried this last year, but it was a failed attempt because the ticket platform the school was using would not support it. After changing ticket platforms to Spectre this season, they are able to make it work and function the correct way for MSU to make transfers available to the students.
  This brings the opportunity of being able to attend MSU football games available to many more students. Only 10,500 student tickets are sold per year. With over 20,000 students, only around half are able to purchase student tickets. 
     The process of transferring tickets is extremely easy. Students go onto their Dog Tag, similar to when they are buying student tickets, but they press the transfer ticket button instead of purchase tickets. There is a step-by-step process that was emailed to each student, and there is an instruction page online. 
 The student who is transferring has to know the person they are transferring the ticket to and has to input their information, such as their student ID and email address. The receiving student then gets an email, and they click the link and accept the ticket to transfer to their student ID. The only charge for transferring tickets is a five dollar transfer fee that can be paid by either the student transferring or the student receiving the ticket.
   Mike Richie, head of ticket operations, said this could help shy away from students illegally giving their student ID out and with students scalping or using counterfeit tickets.
  “If we don’t provide a legitimate platform for legitimate transfers, then that causes more problems with students being able to give each other their IDs,” Richie said. “That creates really big problems on campus. Providing a form for students to transfer tickets back and forth between each other limits the possibility of students trading IDs and doing things that are against university policy.” 
  Eddie White, director of policy at the Student Association, reached out to the ticket office to get this initiative in action. Once the student tickets sold out last year and years before, there was no way for students who did not purchase them to get into games unless they took another student’s ID, which violates the honor code. 
 “There are issues with students losing IDs that they’re borrowing, and that is a huge security issue with not only the students but with the student government.” White said. “Students that may pick up a lost ID now have access to dorms and all the access that you have. The big thing that drove us to this was we want every student to be able to go to a game and experience the feel of a game day here in Davis-Wade Stadium.”
  In the first week of the policy being implemented into the system and the SA announcing it, over 25 students took advantage and transferred their tickets to the home opener against South Alabama. White feels that amount of students already using the process is a huge success.
   “It is definitely a success,” White said. “Anybody that uses it is a huge success. It just was unveiled over a week ago. If it’s one or 1,000 students transferring, it is a success because someone who could not go to the game is now being able to go.”
  Already taking advantage of the policy was Lauren Christmas, a freshman from Brandon, Mississippi. She was not able to purchase tickets on time because she was informed at the last minute, and they were sold out by the time she could get on the website and order them. She was transferred a ticket for the first game of the season and was very pleased with the process.
    “I was very relieved to have this option and was happy that it allowed me to enjoy the game even though I did not have student tickets,” Christmas said. “The process was very simple. All I had to do was confirm my email and the ticket was transferred to my account. The overall experience was effortless almost, and that added to me having a great experience at my first game as well.”
   With the new policy starting this year and the SEC schedule about to begin, students should be sure to remember that they can get tickets transferred to them, and they can transfer tickets to other students with a simple process.