One of the many phenomenons surrounding the Duke/UNC rivalry is Krzyzewskiville – a collection of tents set up for students that acts a line to gain access to one of college basketball’s most exclusive events. If you’re like me, you’ve always wondered how it works and what the inside of one of those tents looks like.
Here’s how it works:
The number of tenting games in a single season is determined by the Line Monitor Committee of the Duke Student Government. The UNC game is always a tenting game but potentially there may be a second game where tent order determines seating. Months before the actual game, students begin to put up and live in tents outside Cameron Indoor Stadium. As many as twelve people can occupy a specific tent group (a tent group may contain up to two physical tents). As regulated by Duke Student Government, there must be a certain number of students in the tent at regular, periodic checks.
From the beginning of tenting in early January (although the first tents usually appear between Christmas and New Year’s Day) for the first two weeks, tents of 12 must have 2 people in the tent during the day and 10 people each night. For the next two weeks, tents must have 1 person in the tent during the day and 6 people each night. For the final two weeks before the game, tents still must have 1 person during the day but only 2 people each nigh. The two weekend nights prior to the game are personal check nights, during which each of the twelve tent members must be at the tent for 3 of 5 personal checks spread over the two nights. If a tent misses a tent check twice, it gets moved to the end of the line (assuming availability). If K-ville is at full capacity (100 tents) and a waitlist exists at the time of the second miss, the tent gets removed completely. Tenters that lose their spot or non-tenters can, however, take their chances at the walk-up line, which forms 48 hours before tipoff. The walk-up line consists of couples, and one member of each couple must be in line at all times. People in the walk-up line are not guaranteed to get into the game; people who have waited more than 24 hours sometimes do not get in.
Since these students are often camping out months in advance just to get into one game, they’ve come up with some pretty comfortable dwellings which they call “K-Ville Kribs.” Here’s a look inside a few of them.
If I were a college student, to get front row tickets to the UNC game at Cameron Indoor, I think I’d sleep outside for a few weeks myself.