Bowl swag not for sale: A look at NCAA limitations on $550 bowl gifts

Hayes Gardner | USA TODAY

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In a vacuum, the recollection shared by Wright Waters, the Football Bowl Association’s executive director, was indeed a “great story,” as he described it. It was a sweet holiday tale of a kid, for the first time, able to make Christmas special thanks to an opportunity provided him by the NCAA.

“We had a great story a couple of years ago at the Las Vegas Bowl,” Waters began in a phone interview. “One of the items that they had in the gift suite was a blender, and they had a player who was coming out and he had three or four blenders, all the same blender, and someone asked, ‘Why are you doing this?’ and he said, ‘This will be the first Christmas that I’ve been able to give gifts to my family.’ So, we have those stories that go with it, and it’s kind of rewarding when you see that.”

Every college football player who participates in one of the 40 FBS bowl games is given gifts from the bowl, and they range from the decorative to pragmatic: Bluetooth backpacks to AirPods to lounge chairs to gift card shopping sprees. Each gift may be valued at no more than $550, however, and the players are not permitted to sell any of the items they receive.

“Awards received for intercollegiate athletics participation may not be sold, exchanged or assigned for another item of value,” the NCAA’s handbook says.

The bowls have become more creative recently. Now, they often offer either gift cards or "gift suites" which grant players the chance to select from several options. Even still, athletes are limited. They can’t receive cash, and they can’t sell the items that they now own if they want to stay eligible per the NCAA.

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Compare that to college football coaches who'll have hundreds of thousands in bonus money stacked onto their lucrative salaries for carrying their teams to bowl games. In a time when player revenue, or lack thereof, is under growing critique, is it time for the NCAA to reconsider its bowl gift policies?

Or will we continue to consider a player receiving four blenders to be a great, rewarding story?

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Bowls are a big business with big financial implications.

Executives of the single-game events average about $500,000 in annual income, with the highest-paid ones raking in over $1 million a year.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day (whose annual salary is $4.5 million) will pocket $350,000 with a win in the College Football playoff semifinal. North Carolina coach Mack Brown could pick up an extra $75,000 with a win in the Military Bowl. Even Western Michigan would shell out $25,000 to coach Tim Lester if the Broncos beat Western Kentucky in the First Responder Bowl.

The players in that bowl will receive a duffle bag, a football and Nine Line Apparel patriotic athletic wear, plus access to a gift suite. As always, the merchandise they take home will not be valued at more than $550, none of it cash. The amount has not budged in years, and the NCAA says it has no plans to alter it.

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Considering the extra time the athletes put in for bowl practices – up to 15 practices or 20 hours per week of football activities – time away from family over the holidays, and the exorbitant bonuses and salaries that surround the bowls, the swag or gift players receive might seem like a puny reward.

“I think that the number, the value needs to be evaluated, and maybe even tied to a cost of living increase so that it’s keeping up,” said Waters, whose annual salary is $200,000. “$550 today is not what $550 was 15 years ago, so I think that needs to be constantly re-evaluated.”

Steve Hogan, the CEO of Florida Citrus Sports, runs both the Citrus Bowl and the Camping World Bowl. Players in those games receive a watch, a backpack and a $400 gift certificate to Best Buy.

“I wish we could do more, but there’s a limit to the number, and we make sure we max that out each year,” he said.

Hogan said that if the NCAA were to raise the maximum beyond $550, his bowl would be likely to max out their gifts to meet the new threshold.

Music City Bowl President and CEO Scott Ramsey said that, if the figure were to raise above $550, his bowl would do “everything in our power to meet the maximum number.” Music City Bowl participants receive a watch and access to a gift suite.

Ramsey has found the gift suites to be advantageous because of the variety they afford to players. He thinks that giving away cash, however, would not feel quite right.

“As a general opinion, I don’t feel like cash is the right way to go,” he said. “I think the premise is still a gift, and I know cash can be a gift in a lot of cases with other situations, but in this particular case, I feel like that’s a little bit out of the real reason of what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Hypothetically, Hogan said that his bowl would not be opposed to giving away cash as a gift.

“If cash were allowed to be given and players viewed that as even more valuable to their experience, we would do it,” he said.

Just as Heisman winners are now forbidden from selling their valuable trophy for profit, bowl game participants are forbidden from selling their belongings for cash. Selling any memento — from a ring to a pair of headphones — is against NCAA rules.

Waters thinks that it, too, is a rule that could be re-visited.

“I think once they’re theirs, they ought to be able to do whatever they want to with them,” he said.

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The bowl experience is an invaluable one, and Waters said that players have described it among their favorite football-playing memories. The tradition of gifts is an essential part of the experience.

“It’s pretty special,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said. “At a place where that maybe hasn’t happened or isn’t guaranteed to you all the time, our kids are still really appreciative of those opportunities and those gifts that they do get. It is pretty cool for them.”

Kentucky linebacker Jamar “Boogie” Watson is readying to play in the Belk Bowl against Virginia Tech, and he said that, like many other players, he’ll be using his Belk gift card to buy some presents for loved ones.

“This is my way of getting some cheap Christmas gifts,” he said.

Kentucky lineman Landon Young plans to take a similar approach, but it’s almost out of necessity. He’s a hunter, but he won’t be able to use any of his bowl gift money to pick up any hunting gear at Belk.

“I wish,” he said. “It’s a lot of stuff that you would never see me buy, but I’m going to take this opportunity to stock up on Christmas presents and birthday presents.”

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Bowls give a lot of positives to college football players. They get to explore a new city, participate in fun activities, play in a nationally televised game and receive gifts.

However, players can be handcuffed by NCAA limitations. Unless you count the extra time to work on their skills, there are no additional bonuses coming their way. Some players — the most elite ones — even decide to boycott the game and forfeit their gifts in favor of securing their health for an NFL future.

The rest of the players happily accept their gifts, whether it's clothes from a department store or designer sunglasses.

“We’re going to always go by NCAA guidelines and they set the standards in the way we’ve got to do things,” said new Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield, whose team plays Penn State in the Cotton Bowl. “First and foremost, we’ll always be compliant with that.”

With 78 teams competing in a bowl game this season and up to 125 people per team eligible to receive gifts, the money does add up: Combined, the 40 bowls can provide up to $5.6 million in merchandise to thousands of players. That’s a lot of money, but it’s less when you consider how much the sport’s highest-paid coaches earn: $9.3 million annually for Dabo Swinney, $8.9 million for Nick Saban and $7.5 million for Jim Harbaugh.

“It’s that time of the year,” Waters said before the bowls began. “Great tradition, and everybody loves the bowls.”

He’s not wrong. But perhaps re-visiting the tradition of bowl gifts and their limitations might make players love the bowls even more.

Contributing: Jon Hale, Evan Barnes and Dylan Montz