Duke's Cameron Crazies Selection Process for UNC Game Involved Rigorous Testing

Students at Duke University burned the midnight oil studying for a high-stakes test. Maybe they occasionally did schoolwork, too.

According to the Wall Street Journal's Ben Cohen and Andrew Beaton, via For The Win's Michelle R. Martinelli, anyone who wanted a seat in the "Cameron Crazies" student section for Thursday's rivalry game against North Carolina underwent a strenuous selection process. As if getting tickets to Blue Devils games wasn't hard enough.

In order to snag premium seats, students took a written test under heavy monitoring:

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Once they were inside, the line monitors circled the room like proctors, searching for any signs of cheating. After exactly one hour, the students put their pencils down and began refreshing their emails, waiting for the results. They soon found out there was no grade inflation. The cutoff was 77%, King said, and the highest score was 93%.

Students who took the quiz but were below the cutoff were placed on a waitlist, and many of them registered for the shorter tenting session that started about two weeks later. It was still likely that they get into the Duke vs. UNC game. But some of the dejected said they considered transferring when they found out they had failed. It was unclear if they were kidding.

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Making matters worse, this was no multiple-choice exam. The test contained 37 open-ended questions, one of which asked who led Duke in scoring during a scrimmage.

Athletes and coaches often claim their team has the smartest fans, but Duke made its supporters prove it. Let's see if those who passed have enough energy left to cheer on the Blue Devils during Thursday's nationally televised contest.

[Wall Street Journal, h/t For The Win]