It has not been a fun morning for the Penn State ticket office or the freshman class.

Screams could be heard throughout Pennsylvania this morning as Ticketmaster crashed right at 7 a.m. when the freshman football student season ticket sale was set to begin. Our Twitter account received dozens of frantic mentions from new students blocked out of the sale had no idea what to do next. The phone lines at the ticket office jammed up as hundreds of parents and students tried to figure out the problem, leaving many prospective season ticket holders helpless.

@OnwardState NO ONE CAN GET ON SOS

— Courtney Erat (@madeofhope33) June 27, 2013

@OnwardState Help…can’t see where to enter student ID! Select ticket type not giving a selection. Find tickets not an active link!!

— Maria Zuccato (@mariazed) June 27, 2013

@OnwardState the ticket sales aren’t working on ticketmaster! Please help!

— Kevin (@KevinFoldes) June 27, 2013

Ticketmaster’s not working :( my day is ruined @OnwardState @penn_state

— Alessandra Amoros (@aallioops) June 27, 2013

@OnwardState the Chinese hacked ticket master!!!

— Vincenzo (@VTrometter56) June 27, 2013

Ticketmaster remained crippled until about 7:25 a.m. when most students were able to go in and purchase tickets (although the glitch still locked out some). Many students awake before 7 a.m. had either given up or were racing to a local WiFi spot to try a new connection. Patricia Rees, the customer relations manager for the ticket office, says her office felt helpless as Ticketmaster tried to sort out its glitch.

“This was a Ticketmaster error,” Rees said. “I don’t have an explanation yet about why some kids had a problem and some kids didn’t.”

Rees’ office has been receiving hundreds of calls all morning from distressed parents and students who were victims of a technological glitch. She emphasized that students may still be able to go to every game if they use diligence on the Student Ticket Exchange.

“What we’re telling kids right now is that they are not locked out of football games,” Rees said. “There is still the ticket exchange in the fall. It’s not nearly as convenient as a season package but the exchange was active with thousands of tickets last year. If you stay determined, there’s no reason why you can’t see six or seven games.”

The freshman tickets sold out only 20 minutes after the glitch was fixed. The junior class tickets sold out in less than 30 minutes on Tuesday while the senior and sophomore sales sold out sometime mid-afternoon on their respective days.

Rees said nothing like this has ever happened before at Penn State. Her office contacted Ticketmaster at 7 a.m. right when the problem was reported but there was nothing it could do to help the outsourced ticket website.

“We’re crushed,” Rees said. “It’s like the Dr. Phil Show here.”

We have a request out to Ticketmaster to explain the situation. We’ll update this post when they respond.