Is it a coach stepping up for his players… or simply a creative strategy to get more fans in the seats? In this case, it's probably both.

Kansas coach Charlie Weis announced on Thursday that he would pay the admission for any KU student that didn’t already have a ticket to the senior-day matchup against Iowa State at 6 p.m. on Saturday. They simply must show up to the student entrance with a valid student ID.

The reason: Weis wants a full house and grand sendoff for his senior class, a group of players that have been through two coaching changes and four straight losing seasons.

"It's supposed to be a beautiful night," Weis said earlier this week. "6 p.m. is too early to go out. "(The game will) get over about 9:30, you know, it's just about right. We've got over 30,000 people at this school; it would be really good if a whole bunch of them came and spent the evening with us getting ready for this game.”