Every day of the week, someone, somewhere, has some kind of daily gimmick.

The NFL has Super Bowl Sunday, ESPN has Big Monday, even the Loop has Two-For-Tuesday. So NIU has joined the club with their rendition of “Big Thursday.”

Included in the festivities is a double-dose of Huskie hoops. First at 6 p.m., the women’s basketball team battles with the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay for bragging rights in the North Star Conference. Both teams come into the game with a perfect 6-0 mark in the NSC.

Following that game, the 15-2 men’s squad squares off with Mid-Continent Conference rivals, Eastern Illinois.

To say this Thursday isn’t the biggest one in the two-year history of the event would be omitting the truth.

So as it turns out, NIU’s Athletic Board did a whale of a job in scheduling such a big (no pun intended) event. But then, they turn around and enforce a ticket policy that has many students bickering.

Instead of just going to the gate and getting in to see the game with a valid student i.d., students now have to pick up tickets in advance of the scheduled tip-off. Why the board imposed such a ludicrous idea is simple laziness.

They didn’t want to have to turn students away come game time. So what if students get turned away at the door? They can come earlier to guarantee a seat. I think it’s great that there would be such a large fan interest to have to turn students away. After all, that hasn’t happened very often.

Since I came here in 1988, there have been three games when Chick Evans Field House was filled to capacity. When the women played DePaul last season, when the men played DePaul this season, and the UW-GB match-up just a couple of weeks ago.

Sure the demand was up for those games. But how about when NIU played Illinois Benedictine College two days after the UW-GB game. Only 2,000 people came. And there hasn’t been a crowd larger than 1,600 for a single women’s game this season.

Obviously, the policy stinks. Now students have to go out of their way to get a ticket. But, I’m writing to challenge the students of NIU.

Forget the inconvenience. Go out of your way to get tickets for tonight’s games. Force the athletic board to turn you away at the ticket line instead of the door.

It’s been a long time since both NIU basketball teams have been this good, so get out to the fieldhouse tonight and heckle those opposing teams.