Students looking to purchase a ticket for the Orange’s second-round matchup of the NCAA Tournament against No. 16 UNC-Asheville on Thursday will have a limited opportunity.

Fifty tickets go on sale to Syracuse University student season ticket holders at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Tickets cost $83 and will be sold at the Carrier Dome Box Office or via phone on a first-come, first-serve basis. Students must provide their SUID number and are limited to purchasing one ticket for the game in Pittsburgh.

SU’s student tickets have sold out many times in the past, said Associate Athletics Director Jeremiah Maher in an email. The number of tickets is proportional to the percentage of student season ticket holders, and SU was allotted the same number of tickets as in previous years, Maher said. Tickets are limited to one per student so that as many students as possible have the opportunity to attend the game, he said.

More tickets will be available for participating schools that advance to the regional tournament. If the Orange advances to the third-round game in Pittsburgh, those who bought tickets for the second-round game will be charged automatically for the third-round game.

Tickets are listed as sold out on the CONSOL Energy Center’s website, the venue where the game will be played. On StubHub, the cheapest listing for tickets is $40, for upper-level seats. The venue has a capacity of 19,000 for basketball.

The Orange’s pursuit of another national title starts Thursday at 3:10 p.m., and students and alumni are already planning to watch or attend the game.

Alumni Relations is working with alumni in the Pittsburgh area on a pregame event, said Brian Spector, president of the SU Alumni Association.

Ashley Andrew, president of SU’s official student section, Otto’s Army, said she knows individuals who are attending the game, although Otto’s Army does not have an organized trip planned because of Spring Break.

But a trip has not been ruled out for possible future games in the tournament, she said.

‘We’re looking into organizing a bus trip, too, through Otto’s Army to Boston for the Elite Eight,’ Andrew said. ‘It’s hard because we won’t know if we’re in the Elite Eight for sure until short notice for booking a bus.’

Andrew said the number of SU fans at away games is always noticeable, especially compared to other schools.

‘When we went to the Big East tournament, at least in my experience, I think we definitely had the strongest student presence there,’ she said. ‘It was interesting to see how many more students came out from Syracuse rather than Louisville or Cincinnati or any of the other universities.’

dmsegelb@syr.edu

Published on March 11, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum