Our loyal readers have shown a great passion for Penn Athletics marketing initiatives, weighing in with (mostly insightful) comments and suggestions on this blog and on the DP' website.

So I thought I would point you to today's editorial, which focuses on the Red and Blue Crew's reorganization efforts. (Note that the editorial represents the opinion of the DP, as determined by a majority of the Opinion Board. The organization maintains a clear separation between reporting and commentary; no sports editors or sports reporters currently sit on the nine-person Opinion Board).

The DP''s bottom line: "[W]e're happy to see that the Athletic Department is investing more heavily in the Red and Blue crew, giving the loose-limbed organization more structure. ... We question, however, whether or not they can accomplish their goals on the low budget of $500 a year."

And it's coming with the same controversial season-ticket policy that the Athletic Department introduced last season.

We reported earlier this week that Penn was likely to stick with the 2008-09 policy. But at the time, senior associate director of athletics Allanna Shanahan said that there would be an "internal battle royal again in the next week or two" as the internally-divided Athletic Department made a final decision.

Now that decision seems even more set in stone; earlier today, Penn offered its first official announcement about The Line. The student-ticketing policy is bolded within the release:

Students must participate in "The Line Announcement" and "The Line" in order to sit in the lower-level Red & Blue Crew sections. ...

The student sections are at the end court on the western side of The Palestra. The section will be split into two general admission areas, a lower level (sections 119, 120, 121) section and an upper level (sections 219, 220, 221).

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Some of you have asked in the comments section about Penn's contract with Nelligan Sports Marketing. For a bit of background reading, you may want to check out the DP's story from when the deal was first announced last year.

UPDATED at 7:20 p.m. on Sept. 23.

Today's story on Penn's  new Athletic marketing initiatives pointed out that the founders of the Fire Glen Miller blog are working with the Athletic Department to revamp the Red and Blue Crew.

Today, Fire Glen Miller offered its take on the ironic situation. Interestingly, as originally written this morning, the post expressed an uncertain future for the blog. Yet by later in the day, the final paragraph was altered to all-but-announce the disbandment of Fire Glen Miller. Justin Chang wrote in an e-mail that "the paragraph was later changed after careful thought and discussion about whether the blog was actually needed now that we were representatives of Penn Athletics." He also said that there was never any discussion of trying to merge the blog and the Red and Blue Crew.

Full text of the Fire Glen Miller post, as it stands now, after the jump.

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Along with the story about the Athletic Department's marketing initiatives that I wrote for today's paper, there was an important but brief sidebar that did not make it online. (As always, PDF here.)

The Athletic Department is likely to continue the controversial season-ticket policy it introduced last season. Student seats behind the west-end basket are general admission, with the lower level reserved for participants in The Line.

“We still occasionally have internal discussions,” senior associate director of athletics Alanna Shanahan said, “but at this point, we’re still holding to the fact that hopefully, long term, this will pay dividends."

Shanahan added that the Athletic Department is internally divided into two opinions. She declined to say where Athletic Director Steve Bilsky fit, or if he straddled both.

“There’s always a camp of people that say, ‘Lets set the standard and hold to it, and if our basketball program is as successful as we all hope, then we’ll be happy that we did this,’” Shanahan said. “Then there’s the other camp that says, ‘Wow, isn’t it painful? We have only maybe 50% of that section filled. Wouldn’t it be nice to allow, maybe five minutes into the game, studnets who are sitting in the upper level down to fill that section.'

“I think there are merits to both. And we’ll probably have that internal battle royal again in the next week or two. And that’s why I say it’s always a tough discussion.”

For now, though, it looks like the policy isn't changing.

"If you had to ask me today," Shanahan said yesterday, "I think we would hold to the protocol that we put in place and hope that the interest grows once again, the team success grows and once again, we have that section packed."

Expect more coverage on The Line as the date -- Oct. 9 -- draws nearer and as Penn makes its decision final.

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My colleague Noah Rosenstein reported last night on men's basketball recruit Cameron Gunter.  The 6-foot-8 forward/center has spoken with the Philadelphia Inquirer and confirmed to them that he is, in fact, headed to Penn.

Just like basically every single preview magazine, the preseason men’s basketball media poll picked Penn to finish second in the Ivy League, behind Cornell.

Interestingly, the Big Red received all 16 first place votes.

The complete poll:

2008-09 Ivy Men's Baketball Preseason Media Poll
1. Cornell — 128 points (16 first-place votes)
2. Penn — 110
3. Yale — 80
4. Harvard — 77
5. Brown — 75
6. Columbia — 45
7. Dartmouth — 33
8. Princeton — 28

(Also, did anyone read page E4 of yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer? If so you would've seen an ad for a Penn football game. One problem: It featured Penn's game versus Columbia, which already took place.  D'oh!)

In case you were worried that Penn Athletics was only focusing on marketing the men's basketball team, the women's basketball team is also receiving the wisdom of Nelligan Sports Marketing.

Against Drexel Dec. 19, the team will attempt to set an all-time attendance record for a home game as part of the yearly “Pack the House” Challenge. Part of the campaign also includes getting school groups to come to the Palestra -- a necessity, since the game is during winter break.

Of all the women's basketball games I've been to, the most spectators I've ever seen is about 200. So there's certainly a lot of seats to be filled in the Palestra. Also it's interesting that both the women's and men's games against Drexel this year are part of NCAA-wide gimmicks. The men's team will play at Drexel for the first time ever, and it'll be at 10 a.m. as part of ESPN's 14-hour hoops marathon.

Here are two other Random Ivy notes:

1) Ivysport.com, which for the most part is a site that sells Ivy League apparel, has an "infopedia" on the Ivy League. Most of you probably already know the vast majority of what's on this site, but in case you ever want to find out which Ivy League school doesn't have a Latin motto (Cornell), or you want to see a good timeline of Ivy League history, this is the site for you.

2) Pumped up for college basketball after The Line?  Well here's a reason to like every single basketball team in America.  Penn's reason:

Glenn Miller has himself a deep rotation. Darren Smith and Tommy McMahon missed last season. Zach Rosen leads the recruiting class that's pretty awesome. Harrison Gaines has an awesome rich man name. And the Quakers have four returning starters. Flat out.

Penn Athletics just announced that The Line will be making its appearance Oct. 17-18, which is the first weekend back from Fall Break. First off, this is a little later than last year's Line.

Second, with the decreased significance of The Line, Penn Athletics is pulling out all the marketing strategies it can to get people to sleepover in the Palestra.

There's the standard promises of food (cheap hot dogs and free Qdoba tacos), of course, and Penn items, including "foam noodles, mini-hoop sets, megaphone, fan banner, and foam Quaker hat." Also, the yearly Red & Blue Crew t-shirt will be distributed.

But in addition to these things, Penn is taking it up another level. The Red and Blue Crew students will also get a chance to win several "items and experiences such as: team gear, autographed items, lunch with Coach Miller and the team, free tickets to away games including Princeton, sitting behind the team bench, watching closed team practices, playing a pick-up game at The Palestra, as well as a few surprise perks."

Will the potential to win such prizes encourage you to go to The Line? Let me know in the comments. Even you alums, feel free to post your thoughts on this new marketing strategy.

In other, random Penn marketing news, there's a Penn football poster in 30th Street Station. I guess Nelligan Sports Marketing wants to get the rush hour crowd to Penn games.

• First we have an analysis of Robert Irvin's return to the fold. David Bernstein also recaps the unusual weekend moments in the Ivy League.
• The men's tennis team played over the weekend.
• Brandon Moyse profiles Penn's newest partner in its sports marketing efforts.

And for you Whartonites, the Associated Press realized today that Henry Paulson played football at Dartmouth and felt the need to write a story about it.