Saturday, Oct. 1 is slated as the first test of a new policy permitting the sale of alcohol inside premium seating areas of Spartan Stadium, a practice that is becoming more common in schools around the Big Ten Conference.

Nine of the 11 universities in the Big Ten, including MSU, now allow some sort of drinking in sections of their stadiums.

The policy, approved by the MSU Board of Trustees on Friday, permits patrons with tickets to the stadium's newly added luxury suites and club seating to purchase beer and wine by the glass starting two hours before the game. No drinking will be allowed in the outdoor seats, and all alcohol sales will stop at kickoff.

The administration justified the decision by saying donors have come to expect certain privileges for their contributions to the university, and filling the suites and club seats is essential to paying for the recent stadium expansion, Trustee David said.

"It's important to have a wide variety of amenities available," he said.

The University of Michigan is the only Big Ten school that does not permit any form of drinking at campus sporting events. The Ohio State University does not allow drinking in suites at football games, but does allow it at basketball games.

Other conference universities have a wide variety of options and restrictions when it comes to alcohol.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, alcohol is served in premium seating at both Camp Randall Stadium and the Kohl Center, where the Badgers play basketball.

This coming basketball season, Wisconsin also will be providing alcohol at a new Kohl Center restaurant called the Kellner Club, said Steve Malchow, an associate athletic director at the university. The restaurant will provide pre-game meals for donors and will stop serving patrons at the start of the game, he said.

Football suites at Camp Randall Stadium cost a donor $49,000 a season, Malchow said. The university picks up the tab for food and beverages - but not for alcohol.

In comparison, suites at MSU range from $35,000 to $80,000 for a single season, and MSU officials were adamant that drinks would not be paid for with university money, but out of suite holders' pockets.

At Purdue University - where the recent addition of luxury suites and a club area to Ross-Ade Stadium closely mirrors the additions at MSU - beer, wine and hard liquor are served to patrons.

Purdue officials have heard complaints about the fairness of providing special privileges to donors, said associate athletic director Jay Cooperider, but he added that those donors are paying for much of the roughly $70 million cost of the stadium addition.

"One of the privileges of helping to pay for this massive project is you can order beer," Cooperider said.

Representatives from a number of Big Ten schools said they had not encountered any difficulties with their policies.

"It's pretty closely policed," Cooperider said. "We don't allow keggers."

Penn State University and Indiana University take a more hands-off approach. Neither university serves alcohol, but both allow suite holders to stock their suites ahead of time.

"They treat the luxury boxes as if it were a tailgate party," Indiana spokeswoman Susan Williams said.

No Big Ten school allows alcohol in the public area of a stadium.

In August, the NCAA Executive Committee drafted a recommendation that member institutions prohibit the sale of alcohol at all sporting events and limit the amount of alcohol advertising during game telecasts. The NCAA has banned alcohol at championship events for years, said Bob Williams, a spokesman for the organization.

At the high school level, alcohol is strictly prohibited at most schools and is against the law on public campuses.

"It's bad enough that it's happening in areas like suites and club seatings in major colleges," said John Johnson, a spokesman for the Michigan High School Athletic Association. "Given the nature of high school sporting events, we should be an alcohol-free zone."

The MHSAA prohibits the sale or advertising of alcohol at its championship events. When high school games are held at professional venues where alcohol advertising is present, officials request those signs are covered or not illuminated, Johnson said.

"We've gone as far as having letters sent to suite holders saying, 'Treat this as if you were in your high school gymnasium,'" he said.

East Lansing High School Athletic Director Thomas Hunt said alcohol consumption isn't much of an issue at games, since the entire student body is underage.

"We'd have none of that at our events," Hunt said, adding that he didn't think it was entirely appropriate at the college level, either.

"In plenty of professional venues it has been a concern," he said. "The ramifications of serving alcohol and the liabilities are enormous."

Incidents like last winter's brawl between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers at the Palace of Auburn Hills have had little impact on alcohol sales at Ford Field in Detroit.

"We just kind of adhere to our practices," Ford Field spokeswoman Risa Balayem said. "We've been fortunate that we haven't had anything of that magnitude at Ford Field."

The field's staff members follow NFL Best Practices procedures, Balayem said, which include stopping alcohol sales after the third quarter and setting a two-drink limit per customer purchase.

Bob Darrow can be reached at darrowro@msu.edu