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or 165-pound redshirt freshman Shakur Rasheed, it was one of the initial reasons why he chose Penn State. A New York state champion recruit from Longwood High School, Rasheed took his o;cial visit to University Park a couple years ago when the Nittany Lions set the NCAA attendance record in what was head coach Cael Sanderson's 9rst dual meet inside the Bryce Jordan Center. "When I saw that, it was like, 'Wow. I can't wait to get out there,' " Rasheed re- cently recalled. He is expected to make his BJC debut Feb. 5 when Penn State hosts defending national champion Ohio State. "I love the spotlight." In spite of a winter storm that hit Centre County Dec. 13, 2013, Rasheed, along with thousands of wrestling fans, trekked to State College to see the Nittany Lions topple Pittsburgh, 28-9, under the spot- light, of course. Rasheed was in the stands and helped make up an o;cial attendance of 15,996, but the university's count in- cluded all the ticket sales, along with everyone else in the building – from the wrestlers on the mat, to the security guards at the door, to the cashiers in the conces- sion stands. And they encouraged all the sta:ers to work that day. Nevertheless, Penn State set a record, and it stood until Iowa hosted Oklahoma State on the turf of Kinnick Stadium Nov. 14 – dubbed "Grapple on the Gridiron." The Hawkeyes won a close one against the Cowboys, 18-16, and they shattered the Nittany Lions' record with a 9gure of 42,287. Sanderson had an ear toward Iowa City that day, saying beforehand, "If it works, maybe we'll look into doing something like that here." But before any steps are taken toward such an event, PSU has to make sure the ends justify the means. There are methods in place to measure the current demand for wrestling tickets, and they could de- termine whether a match in Beaver Sta- dium – or somewhere else that can hold at least 42,288 people – would pay o:. For the 9rst time under Sanderson, Penn State scheduled two matches inside the BJC this season. It costs the program ap- proximately $50,000 to host a dual in the multi-event facility, which is operated in- dependently of the university. By moni- toring ticket sales, Sanderson said, he's able to partly measure the level of current fan interest and determine whether two events are worth the cost. If nothing else, call it market research. "That's why we did that," he said of the decision to host two BJC duals. "We wanted to see what kind of demand we had." It might also help decide other ventures in the future, such as an outdoor match. So far, though, the data has been mixed. Penn State held its first BJC dual meet of the season Dec. 13. It was against a Wisconsin team that had only two na- tionally ranked wrestlers in its starting lineup, and the Nittany Lions dominated, 36-7. For the first time in three BJC tries under Sanderson, there were clusters of empty blue chairs mat-side and vacant seats throughout the arena. Although it would have been the third-highest dual meet total in college wrestling all of last season, the announced attendance of only 12,862 came up well shy of the school record. An Olympic gold medalist, a four-time undefeated NCAA champion, a coach who has led Penn State to four national titles in the past 9ve seasons, Sanderson rarely encounters defeat, let alone has to ac- knowledge it. But that mark snapped Penn State's streak of 27 consecutive home sell- outs, and he wasn't exactly happy about it. "I don't know what the deal is," Sanderson said a few days before the Wisconsin date, acknowledging how the Lions were still more than 4,000 tickets short of a sellout. "I wanted to see where we are at. I wanted to see what kind of demand we have. Ob- viously, we're a little disappointed." A

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