I want to buy a ticket for the UofM versus OSU football game but I don't want to get ripped off.

especially for a $200 ticket. I didn't care so much about the $25-$40 as much but for this game I want to be safe

No they don't check for authenticity I go to the games all the time with student tickets. But in order for you to get it validated you have to have an M card, so if you know anyone that goes there meet up with them and use theirs. They don't care if its not you on the card either. If you do happen to know some one that goes there i would recommend that you skip the validation all together and have them pass there Mcard through the gate and just get in the line and cover up the pic on the card and they will let you in. I do it every time i go there because there is over 100,000 people going to the game, their not going to make sure the id is yours.

sure

When you go through the gates of an LSU game, they have a little hand device that validates the ticket. I also know that the U of North Texas does that to those who actually purchase tickets and they zap the student id cards of students entering the gates (they're student tickets are free with a valid id card).