{"id":513603,"date":"2026-03-02T09:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513603\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T09:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:40:09","slug":"students-discuss-experience-of-overnight-line-for-ucla-usc-mens-basketball-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513603\/","title":{"rendered":"Students discuss experience of overnight line for UCLA-USC men\u2019s basketball game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of Bruins crept out of their dorms Tuesday at midnight, ready to participate in an annual tradition.<\/p>\n

The students rushed to the Intramural Field, forming a line that they would wait in for hours to secure spots in the student section of Pauley Pavilion to watch the UCLA men\u2019s basketball game against the University of Southern California on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

UCLA Athletics announced in a Feb. 17 email that it would allow students to line up on the IM field as early as Tuesday at midnight. However, it added in the email that it would not allow tents or furniture of any kind, besides foldable chairs.<\/p>\n

Students could leave and return to the line so long as a member of their group remained in line, UCLA Athletics said in the email. <\/p>\n

\"(AidanStudents wait outside Pauley Pavilion to secure spots in the student section for the annual rivalry game. UCLA Athletics said in a Feb. 17 email announcement that it would not allow tents or furniture of any kind, besides foldable chairs.(Aidan Sun\/Assistant Photo editor)<\/p>\n

[Related: UCLA eases line up guidelines ahead of men\u2019s basketball game against USC<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Some students played board games and tossed volleyballs and footballs to pass the time. Others used the night as a chance to catch up on schoolwork, reviewing lecture notes with their headphones on.<\/p>\n

Donnobhain Haertel, a third-year applied mathematics and statistics and data science student, said Tuesday was his first time waiting in line for a student section ticket. <\/p>\n

\u201cI could go buy a ticket,\u201d Haertel said. \u201cBut I\u2019m excited to be with the fans down, down close and supporting the Bruins. I think we got it in the bag this year.\u201d <\/p>\n

UCLA Athletics did not allow students to line up overnight ahead of the 2025 UCLA-USC basketball game, citing Time, Place and Manner policies, which ban overnight camping and the use of tents on university property, unless approved beforehand. Students were instead allowed to line up for tickets at 9 a.m. of game day.<\/p>\n

However, the ban did not stop students from creating an unofficial line that snaked up the Hill before 9 a.m. Videos<\/a> showed students then pushing past each other and rushing to secure a spot in the actual line outside Pauley Pavilion at 9 a.m. <\/p>\n

[Related: UCLA\u2019s finalized Time, Place and Manner policy alters public expression guidelines<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Before 2025, UCLA basketball fans have camped outside the basketball arena ahead of the annual rivalry, bringing tarps, sleeping bags and chairs to lines that have historically stretched up Bruin Walk to Charles E. Young Drive and down to the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center. <\/p>\n

Lauren Dace, a third-year anthropology student, said she appreciated UCLA Athletics\u2019 coordination of this year\u2019s line. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe camp out every year,\u201d she said. \u201cThis year is the first one where it\u2019s been organized through the school and they\u2019re trying to keep it contained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dace added that frequent changes to camping guidelines have not taken away from the fun of waiting in line. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Dace said. \u201cMy first year, we got a sign from the Den, so I have that poster up in my room. \u2026 The team walks by, or the football coaches come by and they feed you, so then we meet people.\u201d <\/p>\n

Audrey Parker, a first-year international development studies and political science student, said she and her friends stood in line on Bruin Walk for two hours to get onto the IM field, where students could wait in line to get a ticket. Her group progressed from the Acosta Athletic Training Complex to the outskirts of Pauley Pavilion before heading back to their dorms, she added.<\/p>\n

Parker said she believes there were not enough UCLA Athletics personnel checking students in to the IM field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not running the line well enough,\u201d she said. \u201cI would be OK sleeping on the football field right now. I could be asleep if they were moving the line faster, but we were sitting on the concrete for two hours.\u201d <\/p>\n

For Dace, the campout mattered more than the game itself \u2013 which UCLA won 81-62. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the adventure of doing it,\u201d Dace said, \u201cThe game \u2013 that part\u2019s fun too \u2013 but just doing it all together, playing games, telling stories all night, it\u2019s just fun.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Bruins crept out of their dorms Tuesday at midnight, ready to participate in an annual tradition.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-513603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}