One semester worth of tuition: $1, 695.75. Two semesters worth of tuition $3,391.50. Three semesters worth of tuition: $5,087.25. Three Eastern students draining half court shots in front of 500 screaming fans: Priceless?

Not for Eastern’s athletic department. We might want to start taking up collections for Director of Athletics Rich McDuffie because he and his department are going to need some financial assistance after Friday night.

In case you’ve missed it, students Doug Blunk, Kyle Maxwell and Vince Ursetta won themselves free tuition at Midnight Madness Friday by sinking a free throw, three-pointer and a half-court shot in less than a minute.

At the most, McDuffie thought that maybe one student would get lucky and drain the three shots before the buzzer sounded. But now he’s faced with forking over three semesters worth tuition. Let’s just say that I don’t think Doc McDuffie had that one planned in the budget.

Most of the folks in the athletic department didn’t even know what to expect entering Friday night. They hadn’t held a Midnight Madness for a number of years, and weren’t sure if last year’s exciting NCAA Tournament-bound season would translate into good attendance and excitement Friday night.

They certainly got their share of excitement and somewhere around 500 fans turned out, so McDuffie & Co. can definitely call the event a success. But as we know, it didn’t come without a price.

But that’s the one difference between the way the athletic department was when I arrived on this campus as a freshman and the way it is know – they’re willing to pay the price.

Four years ago, they were lucky to get more than a few dozen students out to the game, let alone 500 at midnight on a Friday during Homecoming weekend. McDuffie and Dave Kidwell, Eastern’s sports information and marketing guru, right on down the line to assistants Pat Osterman and Bart Rettberg have to be credited with the excitement turnaround in the past four years.

Granted, some of that has come with the success of various Panther teams, but a lot of it still has to do with the increase in attention-getters or special promotions the athletic department has put on.

They’ve given away nearly everything under the sun and have done an outstanding job of promoting all of Eastern’s athletic teams.

So, while McDuffie may have to scrounge around to pay the $5,000-plus price tag for Friday’s unbelievable events, the enthusiasm and excitement of 5,000-plus fans that have packed Lantz Arena for basketball games truly is priceless.