Availability of tickets for last night’s NCAA first round game between NIU and Louisiana Tech prompted discreet conversation at yesterday’s Athletic Board meeting.

Questions arose over the fact that season ticket-holders were not guaranteed their seats for the postseason event, all seats were not general admission as mentioned at the selection brunch held Sunday, and people that requested to sit in Section C were not told that NIU’s bench would be switched to the other side of the floor—in front of Section B.

The latter issue was easily taken care of, in that NIU did sit on its regular bench in front of Section C.

Ticket office representative Sheila Berg noted that the ticket office “bent over backward” trying to seat people as close to their original seats as possible.

Nixing the general admission plan seemed to be the best route possible since NIU had to reserve 150 tickets for the NCAA, 175 tickets for Louisiana Tech, tickets for the band, etc.

But, there’s no doubt the 77-71 NIU victory eased most tension.

‘In other business, the board approved an ‘up-to-$10,000′ proposal to refurbish meeting rooms in Huskie Stadium for all NIU teams that use the facilities.

The money comes from the NCAA Broad-based Pool money that was approved by the Athletic Board back in its December gathering. The board passed all $210,486 of that budget except for $10,000 that was supposed to be allocated for “nutritional supplements.”

The supplement proposal is not a dead issue, according to board members, because it still is in the research stage.