Who gets complimentary OSU football tickets?

By John Caniglia

Plain Dealer Reporter/OHNO

Tucked inside a state report released last week about Ohio State athletes buying used cars was a mention of one of the most scrutinized issues in big-time college sports: complimentary tickets.

Authorities wanted to know whether the athletes traded tickets and sports memorabilia to car dealers in exchange for better deals on used cars. Investigators interviewed car dealers, looked through documents and found no wrongdoing.

But the report highlighted a benefit that thousands of people receive each fall Saturday in stadiums across the country. And it is one that forces university compliance offices to scramble to make sure those who get free tickets have no ulterior motives with the athletes.

The report by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles came amid scandal in Ohio State’s football program, which led to coach Jim Tressel’s resignation and quarterback Terrelle Pryor’s bolt for the NFL.

For Ohio State games, hundreds of people receive free tickets, with a face value of $70 apiece, in some of the most coveted seats at the Horseshoe. It is perfectly legal for players to hand them out; they just can’t sell them or receive any other benefit in exchanging them.

So who gets the seats? Parents, girlfriends and friends of the players and their families. In a handful of cases, people linked to the Ohio State scandal also were to receive tickets, according to a Plain Dealer analysis of the ticket lists from 2008 to 2010.

The newspaper obtained the lists through a public records request. The university redacted the names of the players who gave the tickets and most family members who received them, citing the student-athletes’ privacy.

In the last three years, players gave out more than 15,000 complimentary tickets. A fraction of that, about 3,600, were to go to people listed as non-family members.

Ted Sarniak, Pryor’s mentor, was given tickets to 36 of the 39 games the quarterback played in as a Buckeye — the most given to a non-family member. Sarniak’s wife, Kathleen, had tickets to 21 games. Messages left at Sarniak’s business, Jeannette Specialty Glass, in Jeannette, Pa., were not returned.

Ohio State players receive four free tickets to home games and two for away games. The home tickets are for seats on the west side of Ohio Stadium, closest to the field. The seats are in sections 13AA through 19AA, spanning the north end zone to the 50 yard line, said Jim Lynch, a university spokesman.

The players never touch the tickets. They inform the school whom they invited to the game. And those people are placed on the ticket lists. They must pick up the tickets at the stadium an hour before kickoff.

Most of the people who receive the tickets are players’ girlfriends or friends. Others are friends of players’ families.