All N.C. State Tickets Distributed in 6 Hours

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By late Tuesday afternoon, all 9,000 available student tickets had been claimed. An additional 3,000 tickets had been handed out Monday through the block seating distribution.

Though the ticket office didn't open until 8 a.m. Tuesday, students came early the night before to camp out for tickets, bringing couches, chairs and items to keep them entertained.

Many students who applied for block seating and did not receive tickets waited in line for tickets. The tickets were distributed randomly until there were none left.

Brian Fink, a first-year doctorate student in epidemiology, was the first to get in line for the much anticipated game.

"I arrived at 6 p.m., and about two minutes later, the second person arrived. When my friend got there at eight, students were beginning to form a line that reached to over 1,000 students by 8 a.m. Tuesday morning," Fink said.

Clint Gwaltney, director of ticket operations, said that student ticket distribution for Saturday's game ended at 1:50 p.m. and that the last person able to buy a guest pass did so at 1:30 p.m.

Meredith Stokes, a freshman psychology major, was the last student to obtain a guest pass.

"I got a guest pass for my best friend who is coming in from Charlotte," Stokes said. "She had already taken off work and planned for the game, so I was really glad I was able to get her a ticket."

There was a small crowd waiting for tickets around 1:50 p.m. when the ticket office announced that tickets just had become unavailable.

Several tickets became available later when some students whose PID number showed that they weren't fee-paying students did not return with proof by the 5 p.m. deadline.

Though some students were not able to get tickets through block seating or by waiting in line early Tuesday afternoon, several students said they enjoyed the experience of camping out for tickets.

Fink said that throughout the night, he and his friends saw people chipping mini Wiffle balls with sand wedges, sliding down the hills on their chests, and trying to go down the steps in front of the Smith Center on razor scooters.

At 8 a.m. Coach John Bunting walked through the crowd of waiting students distributing Chick-fil-A biscuits.

"It was absolutely worthwhile to arrive so early and wait for the tickets," Fink said. "The campout is part of the college football experience here, and I hope it continues."

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