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Compliance Question Of The Week
For the week of:  October 9, 2009

Question:
So what about professional events? Can we take our team to pro games?

Answer:
An institution or any representative of its athletics interests may not purchase or otherwise obtain tickets to a professional sports event and make these tickets available to student-athletes enrolled in an NCAA member institution. Such a gift of tickets would represent an unacceptable extra benefit. (See Bylaw 16.7.1.1 for permissible provision of professional sports tickets as team entertainment related to an away-from-home contest.) And this is a good time to remind everyone generally about Team Entertainment:

16.7 TEAM ENTERTAINMENT

16.7.1 Away-from-Home Contests and Vacation Periods. The institution may pay the actual costs (but may not provide cash) for reasonable entertainment that takes place within a 100-mile radius of where a team plays or practices in connection with an away-from-home contest or en route to or from such a contest. In addition, an institution may pay the actual costs (but may not provide cash) for reasonable entertainment that takes place within a 30-mile radius of the institution's campus or practice site during vacation periods when the team is required to reside on campus (or at a practice site normally used by the institution) and classes are not in session.

16.7.1.1 Professional Sports Tickets. Complimentary tickets to professional sports contests shall not be provided to student-athletes, unless the tickets are provided by the institution (or by a representative of athletics interests through the institution) for entertainment purposes to student-athletes involved in an away-from-home contest. Under the latter circumstances, the institution may pay actual costs for reasonable entertainment that takes place during a team trip.

16.7.2 Movies in Conjunction with a Home Contest. The institution may rent a film or movie, provide pay-per-view movies in the student-athletes' hotel rooms or take its intercollegiate team to the movies the night before a home contest without the film or movie being considered an extra benefit.