Now that the college football games are getting down to “crunch time,” the state’s new ethics law becomes more of a talking point.

At Bryant-Denny Stadium last week, the sticker price for a ticket to the LSU/Bama game was $75 but many of the lucky ticket holders were selling their seats at prices in the thousands of dollars.

Were some of the legislators or other public officials, including those who work for the university, who had been given the privilege of purchasing tickets at the sticker price, also cashing in by selling closer to the true market value of their seats?

The executive director of the Alabama Ethics Commission, Jim Sumner, has told the media that the new law was written so that public officials must pay the official price for tickets, which was $75 for the Alabama-LSU game. He said it would have been impossible to write it in such a way that it accounted for scalped tickets and for donations to programs like “Tide Pride” and “Tigers Unlimited,” but added that making a profit would be a violation.

The only problem is that the official price for a good ticket at Auburn or Alabama is not the amount stamped on it. At Auburn, for example, the cost of a “scholarship” seat in the lower section on the 35-40 yard-line this year would be the face value plus a $600 scholarship donation per seat, per season. Let’s see. Auburn plays seven home games in 2011 so a ticket price for a seat at the Iron Bowl on Nov. 28 would be the face value of $80 plus 86 dollars and some change in scholarship costs. Surely the school wouldn’t put a legislator in a bad seat.

“The law clearly says anything for which public officials pay full value is allowed,” Sumner has said. But one could argue that the term “full value” means just that and not the real “face value.”

So does paid admission mean that when the governor goes to a game to crown the homecoming queen, he must pay the price of admission? Perhaps so, but that does seem kind of a stretch.

The director of media relations for the University of Alabama, Cathy Andreen, told the Associated Press last week that legislators are given order forms before the start of the season, allowing them to purchase tickets at face value.

“During the season, university officials will attempt to assist legislators in finding tickets for purchase upon request, although tickets are not always available,” Andreen said.

Then there is the question of the skyboxes at Bryant-Denny and-Jordan Hare. Who is to keep the owners of these boxes from inviting legislators to see the games? The universities have no control over who the owners invite to the suites.

At Auburn there is a unique situation with regard to seats and skyboxes. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Hubbard, is president of The Auburn Network, which is owned by IMG College and was recently purchased from ISP Sports which Hubbard founded. Hubbard and his company control the broadcast rights and advertising at the stadium during games.

Speaker Hubbard and IMG College, as a part of the package with Auburn, control three skyboxes and hundreds of seats and parking passes. Is it illegal under the new ethics law for Hubbard, as a representative of Auburn University, to entertain his colleagues in the Legislature with seats, parking passes, beverages and food in these suites and stadium seats at games?

The Ethics Commission should have its two investigators out in full force at the Iron Bowl this year at Jordan Hare. Their eyes should be focused on the skybox elevators at the beginning of the fourth quarter. That’s when many in the stands can be invited to the skyboxes for the final quarter of play.

Just how much is a skybox visit worth for one quarter. The food and drink alone could easily exceed the ethics law’s $25 meal limit without counting the view.

The problem with ethics in the Legislature is not the wine and meals. It’s the practice of industry groups and professional associations, public and private, using their members to hire our part-time lawmakers to full-time jobs in return for the support of legislation favorable to them.

This has been a practice for years. The lawyers and educators used to own the legislative turf, but that has long passed. The control now rests in big business groups and associations. These entities rule the legislative process in Alabama and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Bob Martin is editor and publisher of The Montgomery Independent. Email him at: bob@montgomeryindependent.com.