Krzyzewskiville - K-ville Rules

K-ville Rules

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) until one week before the game, tents of 12 generally must have 1 person in the tent during the day and 6 people each night. From approximately two weeks before the game, only two people must be in the tent each night. 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.

Tents must register with the line monitors (students in charge of overseeing and enforcing K-ville rules and regulations) prior to setting up. There are three types: "Black" registration, which is the longest and most intense option in which tenting starts a week early and the use of actual tents is forbidden, in addition to this all 12 tenters must sleep in the tent during black tenting; "Blue" registration, in which a tent can register at any time before approximately two weeks prior to the game; after this, "White" registration goes into effect, which is significantly more complicated. For "Blue" registration, a tent group need only give their names to the line monitors and start tenting. However, for "White" registration, students must meet the line monitors at a location on campus that is disclosed on a website at a specified time; this results in a hectic dash to the location once it is made public. Most tenting groups station members around campus, one of whom is called when the location is disclosed online. Hundreds of tent representatives usually appear at the White registration location for the 40 or so spots not taken by "Blue" tenters, with the spots filling up in a matter of minutes.

K-ville is also a social function at Duke, as many students participate at least once; it gives students a chance to mix with those not in their own dorms or classes. Duke has installed Wi-Fi service and Ethernet ports in the lightposts so that students can participate in tenting without falling behind in their schoolwork, although the internet is known to be very unreliable. Students also complain that the cold weather also prevents them from getting any real work done.

Heaters are not permitted in K-ville; students must keep warm by simply using sleeping bags and dressing appropriately. Many tenters end up succumbing to cold and flu-like symptoms around this time.