Some winning ideas

Over the course of this season, several readers have come up with suggestions and ideas that are just plain good -- or at least worth repeating in print.\nEarlier in the year, I wrote about the problem of students not being able to get close enough to the action at Assembly Hall. Since an enlarged student section or seating on basis of seniority is still a pipe dream, one reader gave me an idea that seems like it would work.\nA non-student season ticket holder, he has noted that faculty and alumni ticket holders sometimes can't make it to every game, especially on nights in the middle of the week. He suggested that the Student Athletic Board could run a program where season ticket holders would donate their tickets if they knew they would not be able to make it to a game. Students without seats could then line up an hour or so before tip-off, and see if they'd score some primo tickets. \nI think it would at least work better than selling your tickets off to shady scalpers.\nAnother reader advised that there should be a song written about junior A.J. Moye, based on the logic that "everyone loves A.J. Moye." Also, she had just heard a song on ESPN written about Yao Ming, so thus theorized Moye should get one too.\nIt is true that there is a long history of quality songs including references about athletes ("Mrs. Robinson," to name one). But perhaps the best example of a sports song is "The Super Bowl Shuffle." So if someone penned a tune called "The A.J. Moye Shuffle," I could dig it.\nOther readers have suggested I am an (expletive deleted) idiot and that I should limit my future to writing greeting cards.\nSometimes, though, even I am able to come up with a good idea. This year, IU didn't hold either the Indiana Classic or the Hoosier Classic. Not that I mind -- they were generally tournaments consisting of creampuff teams that created no excitement unless you were related to one of the walk-on players that got to play in the final two minutes. \nHowever, I think that they should be combined and brought back in the future in an entirely new form of the all-Indiana basketball tournament. A state championship, if you will.\nThink about it -- there's enough schools in the state to pull it off. IU, Purdue, Notre Dame, Butler, Ball State, Indiana State, Valparaiso, Evansville, IUPUI and IPFW are all Division I schools.\nIt's a tournament that could create some pretty interesting match-ups. And it wouldn't necessarily be the same teams in the championship game every year. You could randomly draw up the bracket to create new match-ups in the first round each year -- maybe IU plays IPFW one year. Maybe they get Notre Dame the next.\nThere would be plenty of potential for upsets. It's a tournament that the small schools can gun for, as it could be their best chance to pick up a quality win in the eyes of the tournament committee. Just this season alone, Evansville defeated No. 17 Creighton, and IUPUI beat Northwestern, a team with wins over both IU and Purdue. (Apparently, the powers of IU and Purdue combined into one school were too much for the Wildcats to handle).\nIt's unlikely that such a tournament would ever happen -- losing to an in-state opponent can mean losing a recruit to your rival. But it would still be cool.