STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State pulled a reverse with its policy for student football tickets.

Bowing to criticism, the athletic department scrapped a plan to distribute the 21,800 tickets by lottery and will return to the first-come, first-serve policy.

The proposed lottery was announced Tuesday night, and thousands of students criticized the plan through social networking Web sites. Some worried that diehard Nittany Lions fans would be shut out of Beaver Stadium, and that less interested students might scalp their tickets.

"It became very apparent, very quickly, that most Penn State students want the first-come, first-serve system," associate athletic director Greg Myford said. "So that's what we are going to do."

With a capacity of 107,282, Beaver Stadium is the second-largest in the country behind Michigan Stadium (107,501) in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Penn State's 2007 season begins Sept. 1 at home with a game against Florida International.