Student government should cut $100,000 from its funding allocation to NDSU athletics and allocate the funds to Tier II organizations.

Now before the criticism of cutting athletic funding pours in, let me explain.

Jay Homan, executive commissioner of finance for the North Dakota State student government, announced on March 8 that student senate had voted to cut 12 percent from every Tier II organization for the next fiscal year, with a contingency clause that the next executive commissioner of finance could reimburse Tier II organizations with rollover funding.

Homan also said in an interview that a year prior, student groups lost four percent of their funding.

That being said, there is one untapped way for student government to save money: students paying for Bison football tickets.

Currently, NDSU students fund seven percent of the Tier I organization NDSU athletics’ budget, or $1.4 million.

Ryan Perreault, director of athletic communications at NDSU, said, presently, student fees from the student activity fee pay for part of athletics, and athletics in return reserves free admission to home games.

Nikki Borstad, NDSU student government’s executive commissioner of public relations said 4,000 tickets are allocated to students for every regular season Bison football game.

Here’s another idea: NDSU should adopt a policy such as its sister school, the University of North Dakota, does for its hockey program.

Presently, UND has a ticket program for students, where tickets are $10 for an individual game, $70 for a Friday game only season package, $80 for a Saturday game only season ticket package and $140 for an all-season ticket package.

If NDSU students were to pay $10 per ticket for Bison football games, assuming all allocated student seats were filled at Bison football game, NDSU athletics could make $40,000 per home game, and a total of $240,000 for all six regular season home games.

Students from NDSU who wish to go to a Bison game will go to a Bison game regardless of whether or not the tickets are free or relatively inexpensive. Having a season ticket package would also allow for students to not have to worry about waking up early Monday mornings to get a football ticket.