The sandwich-shop sign outside the Sun Dome said it all: "NO W. VA FB TICKETS"

The line outside the Sun Dome got long enough fast enough that USF started distributing its final allotment of 400 student tickets a few hours early on Thursday, with the last ticket handed out just before 3 p.m.

USF had asked for students to start lining up at noon, five hours before the original time designated for ticket distribution. But football-crazed students were lining up at 10 a.m., and rather than subject them to a few more hours of midday sun, the ticket office got things started. Students arriving after 3 p.m. -- that's really not two hours early, but three hours late -- were given the unfortunate news, next to a short line of people buying tickets for USF's remaining home games.

Lots more to come in the next 30 hours -- we'll be blogging live from the game Friday night and should have plenty of updates between now and then. I've heard that about 20 players, in either a show of solidarity or an alarming shoutout to Mr. T, will be boasting Mohawk haircuts for Friday's game.