NCAA Seats Available Next Week

But the number of tickets available to students rests heavily on the region the team is assigned to by the tournament selection committee.

Carolina Athletic Association President Tee Pruitt said the tickets will be distributed over the phone on a first come, first serve basis, so any students interested in obtaining tickets should call the ticket office early Monday.

"You have to hop on this thing as soon as it happens because it happens so fast," Pruitt said.

Depending on which venue hosts the games, students could expect to pay anywhere between $105 and $150 for tickets.

Andrew Brown, public relations manager for the Greensboro Coliseum -- one of the Tar Heels' more possible tournament venues -- said each venue will distribute tickets to the athletics departments of participating schools according to NCAA regulations.

But Pruitt said how those allocated tickets are distributed is under the jurisdiction of UNC's Department of Athletics and will strongly depend on the proximity of the venue. "When the team plays outside the Dean Dome, it's out of (the CAA's) hands," he said.

If the basketball team is placed in the east region -- a strong possibility if it wins this weekend's ACC tournament -- it will play its first- and second-round games at either Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Long Island or at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Pruitt said more students would probably get tickets if the games are held closer to Chapel Hill. "I think we're more likely to get tickets for Greensboro than anywhere else," Pruitt said.

Brown said that if the team were assigned to play in Greensboro, the athletics department could receive as many as 450 of the venue's 23,037 seats. "We're allocating a set amount of 350 tickets per school, and each school has the option of purchasing 100 more," he said.

The tickets, which admit patrons to all six games held at the venue, would be sold to the University at their face value of $105, Brown said.

Pruitt said probably only a small fraction of the University's allocated tickets would be distributed to students, with many of the tickets already slated to go to such groups as the UNC Pep Band, athletics department staff and Educational Foundation donors.

But Pruitt said extra tickets might become available if other schools traveling across the country don't sell all their allocated seats. "There aren't a lot of schools with a traveling fan base as large as UNC," he said. "If a team like Gonzaga is playing in our bracket, I doubt they're going to bring many people. I'd call up their ticket office."

Pruitt said that if the UNC basketball team wins its first two games and plays in the regional finals, tickets for those games will be distributed in the same first come, first serve manner over the phone as soon as they become available.

He also said he will send information on obtaining tickets through the CAA listserv as soon as the number of allocated student tickets is released at about 10 p.m. Sunday. "Nothing is finalized yet," he said. "It all gets decided on selection Sunday."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.