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Alcuni studenti guardano il dibattito, ma non ne capiscono niente.

Alcuni studenti guardano il dibattito, ma non ne capiscono niente.
Some students watch the debate, but they understand nothing of it.
From Lesson 175:Topic pronoun (ne)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Alcuni studenti guardano il dibattito, ma non ne capiscono niente.

What exactly does ne replace in this sentence?
It replaces di questo dibattito (of/about this debate). The verb capire often takes the preposition di when it means "to understand about" something. Instead of repeating the noun, we use the pronoun ne to say "understand about it".
Would the sentence still make sense if I left out ne and just said non capiscono niente?
Yes, but the meaning is slightly different. Non capiscono niente simply means "They don't understand anything" in general. By adding ne, you specifically connect their lack of understanding back to the debate you just mentioned: "They don't understand anything about it."
Why use both non and niente in the same phrase? Doesn't that make a double negative?
Yes, and Italian requires a "double negative" here! When negative words like niente (nothing), nessuno (nobody), or mai (never) come after the verb, you must put non before the verb. So literally, they "do not understand nothing".
What is the rule for the word order of non, ne, and the verb?
Pronouns like ne always go immediately before the conjugated verb (here, capiscono). The negative word non always comes before the pronoun. Therefore, the required order is always: non + pronoun + verb.

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