Why were UVA students stuck in the nosebleeds at the ACC Championship Game?

A UVA student who made the trek down to Charlotte for last week’s ACC Championship Game wanted me to look into why the student section for our kids was up in the upper deck, while the Duke kids had prime seats in the lower bowl.

“Do you know why the ACC gave Duke students such great seats while giving UVA students the nosebleeds?” the student, Caleb Scott, wrote me by email on Monday. “I’m not saying that’s why we lost, but crowd energy definitely affects games, and Duke had a clear advantage in crowd energy thanks to their good seats. I thought the ACC would give both schools comparable student sections on opposite sides of the stadium, especially since logistics could not have been an issue in a stadium that was nowhere near capacity.”

I checked, and found out from a contact at the ACC headquarters that the decision on seating didn’t come from them.

The word back to me is that the two schools got the same ticket allotment and had full discretion over how those tickets are distributed, and that the ACC offered both schools the opportunity to sell student tickets in the upper level beyond their standard allotment.

The schools ultimately determined how and where their respective ticket allotments were utilized, was the message.

I reached out to UVA Athletics to try to get our folks’ side of this story, and haven’t heard back.

Caleb wrote me about being “frustrated” at the seating arrangements, which I can understand – I was a student once myself, way, way back in the day, and I made one drive down with a buddy to Greensboro for the 1994 ACC Tournament, on a budget with no room to spare.

At least we were in the lower bowl for that weekend – Virginia, incidentally, made the final, beating a Grant Hill-led Duke in the semis, then losing to North Carolina in a game that was tight into the final seconds.

I recall having Carolina fans, on our walk into the arena, offer us $500 apiece for our tickets, and thinking, man, that would pay some bills.

Inflation-adjusted value in 2025 of $500 in 1994: $1,095.82.

I can imagine Caleb and his guys had to pool their money to get to Charlotte for the ACCCG; and then they get there, and they’re in the nosebleeds, and the Duke kids are on the field, and being pissed.

At least now they know who to be pissed at.