UCLA Athletics will allow students to line up on the IM fields for a limited number of tickets to UCLA men’s basketball’s Feb. 24 matchup against USC, UCLA Athletics announced Tuesday. 

Den Pass holders can line up on Intramural Field 3 as early as midnight on Feb. 24, UCLA Athletics announced in a Tuesday email to students. However, UCLA Athletics added in the email that it will not allow tents or furniture of any kind, besides foldable chairs. 

Students will be able to leave and return from the line to use the bathroom, eat and attend class – so long as part of their group remains, UCLA Athletics said in the email. Amplified music will not be allowed from midnight to 8 a.m., according to the email. 

Student wristbands will be distributed at noon – eight hours before tipoff, UCLA Athletics said in the email. Staff will escort students from the IM fields to Pauley Pavilion’s student door at 6:30 p.m., UCLA Athletics added in the email. 

UCLA Athletics banned students from lining up for tickets overnight for the 2025 USC men’s basketball matchup, citing Time, Place and Manner policies which prohibit overnight camping. Students were allowed to line up starting at 9 a.m. on the day of the game – eight hours before tipoff.

However, the ban did not stop students from lining up, with hundreds creating an informal line up the Hill before sunrise. Videos showed students who waited on the Hill pushing past each other as they rushed to secure a spot in the actual line outside Pauley at 9 a.m. 

Before 2025, UCLA fans set up tarps, chairs and sleeping bags while waiting in long lines – which have historically stretched up Bruin Walk to the intersection with Charles E. Young Drive and then down to the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center – to enter Pauley for the marquee matchup.

“It gets the fans fired up,” said Will Kenny, a second-year political science student.

The university’s TPM policies prohibit people from erecting tents or other temporary structures on UCLA property, as well as overnight camping, unless the temporary structure is in conjunction with “appropriate campus activities” and receives approval from the UCLA Events Office.

[Related: UCLA’s finalized Time, Place and Manner policy alters public expression guidelines]

Steve Lurie, the associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety, said the university decided to not allow tents outside the game again to remain content-neutral about rule enforcement. 

“We have been in discussions with athletics and there will not be tents permitted for things like games,” Lurie said in the statement. “Unfortunately, this is required to make sure we are content neutral, and completely objective about our rule enforcement.” 

The UCLA Events Office announced updates to its temporary structures guidelines Feb. 11 – which Lurie said were made to align policy. The changes include a definitions section that clarifies relevant terminology used in the policy and a 10-day minimum notice requirement for submitting requests to erect a temporary structure.

Julius James, a second-year public affairs student, said he believes giving students the chance to wait in line for a ticket gets them excited about the matchup and helps cultivate school spirit.

“It definitely helps foster school spirit and brings kids to the game,” James said. “It’s what we need.” 

James, who is also a member of Den Operations – the organization that runs the student section for UCLA Athletics – said he finds it understandable that UCLA Athletics must abide by TPM policies. He added, though, that he believes students will make the most of their line-up experience, even without tents or other furniture.

[Related: UCLA Athletics announces ban on overnight camping ahead of USC matchup]

“I truly do believe that students and the faculty and athletics will try to find another way to make sure that ‘Hey, even though we can’t do this, what can we do to make sure that students have the best time at the game?’” James said.