Limits on Post-Season Gifts & the Recently Highlighted Inequities between the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Student-Athletes’ Championship
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Term-in-Ology: NCAA Limits on Student-Athlete Post-Season Gifts & the Recently Highlighted Inequities between the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Student-Athletes’ Championship Experiences
The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments’ common ground this month has transcended buzzer beaters and upsets. The national dialogue in recent days around the popular college basketball tournaments has veered from the on-court "madness" to the off-court inequities between the men’s and women’s basketball student-athlete experiences.
The disparity in weight room accommodations being provided to women’s basketball student-athletes in San Antonio paled in comparison to the those being provided to the Division I men’s basketball student-athletes in Indianapolis. Weight rooms were not the only student-athlete experience element scrutinized.
Another flashpoint around the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments from a student-athlete experience standpoint centered on the participation gifts -- or colloquially “swag bags” -- that the men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes participating in the championship tournaments respectively receive from the NCAA.
As the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, South Carolina women’s basketball student-athlete Aliyah Boston noted that the swag bag of gifts for participants was a massive disparity -- the men received dozens of products, while the women got a T-shirt, body wash and an umbrella.
“The bags, I’m glad we got a body wash, but they got a whole store.”
A side-by-side comparison of the welcome gift swag bags awaiting the men’s basketball student-athletes versus the women’s basketball student-athletes can be seen below.
In this week’s Term-in-ology, we look at what NCAA rules say about championship participation awards (aka swag bags). NCAA Bylaw 16 regulates student-athlete benefits generally. More acutely, Figure 16-1, outlines the limits and details around student-athlete participation awards including the type of award, value of award, number of times an award can be provided, and permissible awarding agencies.
For participation in a postseason NCAA championship contest or tournament, there are two awarding agencies permitted to provide championship participation awards or gifts -- a student-athlete’s Division I school and the NCAA.
Specifically, a Division I student-athlete’s university may, one time, provide a postseason participation gift up to $375 in value. Concurrently, the NCAA may also provide student-athletes participating in an NCAA championship with a participation gift but with one big difference: the NCAA national office has no dollar limit set by NCAA rules in Figure 16-1 on the value of the participation awards it can provide to participating student-athletes.
That is to say, student-athletes in the most high-profile championships like men’s basketball and women’s basketball can and do receive awards that likely exceed in retail value the $375 ceiling set for awards given by member schools. The NCAA’s gifting approach to championship participation gifts has leaned towards multiple gifts including NCAA championship branded gifts.
The participation awards or gifts given to men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes have overlapped in terms of the specific items, but have had distinctions -- by gender -- over the years.
For example, in 2017, the NCAA announced that student-athletes who played in the Men’s and Women’s Final Fours that year would have access to an online gifting suite. They could choose up to $350 worth of electronics, home goods and other items. That year, Final Four participants also received rings, official Wilson Final Four basketballs, commemorative Lucite tickets, bench towels and Wilson backpacks.
Other gifts for the participants in the 2017 Division I basketball tournaments included additional, common giveaways for both men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes such as flash drives for all student-athletes at the end of each round in which they participate, including game video and copies of news conferences as well as Fossil watches. In the first and second rounds of the tournament, all men and women received apparel and hats. In the regionals, men’s and women’s student-athletes had access to a gifting suite in which they select their gifts, totaling a value of up to $100.
However, there were distinctions in 2017 between the men’s and women’s gift packages. The men received fleece blankets and bench chairs, and women received air loungers, a ball cube and a custom belt buckle. Further, in the men's basketball championships First Four, men competing received apparel, hats and socks. (The women’s tournament does not include a First Four round). In the first and second rounds of the tournament, though, men would receive socks, and women will receive necklaces.
The NCAA has noted participating student-athletes and schools could provide feedback on the mementos every year, and the gifts are selected based on that feedback. The NCAA noted it also covers family and guest travel and transportation for participants at each Final Four, as well as a private brunch for student-athletes’ guests.
In light of this year’s men's and women's basketball championship student-athlete experience disparities, the NCAA announced it hired an outside law firm specializing in Title IX law to conduct a gender equity review of its championships. In addition to the bottom-line dollar values of the awards given to men’s and women’s athletes and the process by which student-athletes receive or select their participation gifts, it will be noteworthy how the involvement and influence of NCAA corporate partners donating their goods to one championship’s gift suite and not the other factors in to the review.
It will also be interesting to see if the law firm’s report addresses any tiering of participation gift value between different types of NCAA championships. For example, should men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes receive NCAA tournament participation awards from the NCAA valued much higher than Olympic sport participants competing in their respective NCAA championships? Will the investigating law firm recommend that the NCAA eliminate the practice of providing distinct gifts between genders in similar sports like men’s and women’s basketball? These and more questions will hopefully be addressed in the law firm's final report.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
