Letter to Area Businesses

Dear Lawrence and Kansas City Area Local Businesses:

Thank you for your support of Kansas Athletics and our Jayhawk student-athletes.

In recent years, the NCAA has investigated several intercollegiate athletics programs across the country due to allegations that local establishments were providing "extra benefits" to currently enrolled student-athletes. As this has proven to be an ongoing problem for the NCAA, we believe it is important to inform all local businesses near our campus of the consequences that could result from the provision of benefits to student-athletes and/or their families.

If members of any of our athletics teams and/or their families or friends patronize your establishment, we ask that you accommodate them as you would any other customer. The NCAA prohibits student-athletes and their families and friends from accepting any items or services for free or at a reduced cost from businesses, unless such an offer is available to the general public and/or student body at large. Additionally, student-athletes are expressly prohibited from bartering items they may have received for their athletics participation (e.g., jerseys/apparel, rings, autographs, sports equipment, etc.). Consequently, involvement by student athletes or their friends or relatives in any of the above activities would violate NCAA rules and, therefore, jeopardize the student-athlete's eligibility for intercollegiate athletics completion.

• NCAA Bylaw 16.02.3 defines an "extra benefit" as: any special arrangement by an institutional employee or a representative of the institution's athletics interests to provide a student-athlete or the student-athlete's relative or friend a benefit not expressly authorized by NCAA legislation. Receipt of a benefit by student-athlete or their relatives or friends is not a violation of NCAA legislation if it is demonstrated that the same benefit is generally available to the institution's students or their relatives or friends or to a particular segment of the student body (e.g., foreign students, minority students) determined on a basis unrelated to athletic ability.
• In other words, it is impermissible to provide an extra benefit to any student-athlete (including prospective Kansas student-athletes or recruits), his/her family, or his/her friends, unless those benefits are available to the general public.
• Extra benefits include special discounts, payment arrangements, free food, free merchandise, free admission, free services (e.g. dry cleaning), receiving athletic equipment, supplies or clothing (e.g. tennis racquets, golf clubs, balls, shirts) from a manufacturer or commercial enterprise, or other special arrangements.
• If a student-athlete receives an impermissible extra benefit, he or she becomes immediately ineligible to participate in collegiate athletics and will have to repay the value of the extra benefit and will be withheld from competition.
• To make sure our student-athletes remain eligible, please do not give them, their family, or their friends any extra benefit that is not provided to the general public.
• Something that may seem innocent such as a restaurant giving a student-athlete half off on his/her fast food bill because he/she is a student-athlete would jeopardize his/her eligibility.

We appreciate your cooperation and your support of Kansas Athletics. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at (785) 864-4200, or via e-mail at compliance@ku.edu.

University of Kansas
Athletic Compliance Office