Sorry for the delay in responding to these questions (at least one post was directed at me), but here goes:
Everyone gets a wristband, and you MUST have a wristband to purchase tickets. You will not, however, receive your wristband until the employees show up around 7:30. In other words, if you get there before 7:30, just get in line. Once the employees get there, they'll start passing out wristbands.
The wristbands ARE numbered, but you must be in line. The people at the ticket window don't even check to see if you have a wristband, let alone what the number on it is - the people outside do that. You are allowed to leave the line for bathroom breaks and things like that, but if you leave for a significant amount of time, you will probably not get your place in line back.
I'm not 100% on this, but I'm pretty sure the ticket window WILL accept credit cards.
If you want tickets for PSU, get there early. If you aren't in line before 7:30, you probably won't get tickets.
If you are at the very front of the line (1st 20 people or so), it seems you are virtually guaranteed tickets between the 40's. After that, they quality (location) of the tickets goes downhill pretty fast.
PSU will be the first "big" game that I will have tried doing this. I have no idea how early "early" is, but I know that people got into line for the UC game around 5 am.
The ticket office says that they will open five hours prior to kickoff. Last week (UC), they didn't open until 8, and for Northern Illinois, they opened at 9 (3:30 kickoff), so I have no idea what the accurate timing is. My guess is 8, since everything was a clusterfuck for the NIU game (only one window open, and nobody seemed to know what was going on). It was much smoother for the UC game.
Parking is simple. I'm virtually positive you can park in any lot you can get into. The parking employees get down there and are on duty by 4 am. The best place to park, IMO, is the lot between the Alumni Center (Longaberger) and Fawcett, although that will likely be filled by 9. Otherwise, just park where you can and hike it to the Schott.