Some athletes receive gifts from NCAA, conferences for playoffs

Participating in the 2010 Mountain West Conference men’s basketball tournament gave Air Force players a chance to travel to Las Vegas, taste the postseason, pick up an extra victory and push the league’s No. 1 seed to the brink.

It also got them iLuv iPod clock radio docking stations.

In a move that is commonplace in college athletics, the MWC gives participants of its basketball tournaments gifts.

This year MWC men’s and women’s basketball players received one of four options — a portable DVD player, a digital camera, an Ogio travel bag or the iPod docking station.

“It’s a cool thing,” Air Force junior guard Evan Washington said. “Each year I’ve been here we’ve gotten something. … It’s cool that the Mountain West can give out expensive things like that.”

The NCAA allows conferences to give participants of league championship events gifts valued at no more than $325 per student-athlete. Most conferences give gifts to athletes, though according to a report in Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal, the Big Ten, Pac-10 and Mid-American conferences chose not to give gifts during the 2009-10 school year to save money in the difficult economic climate.

Dan Butterly, an associate commissioner at the MWC, said the league’s membership discussed suspending gifts in May of 2009.

“The membership reviewed it and decided it was not something to eliminate in the 2009-10 year,” Butterly said. “We don’t go and splurge — we didn’t go for the maximum amount the NCAA allows. We do it within budget and reason, and we really like the awareness for the Mountain West Conference that it provides.”

The MWC went through Goldner Associates for its gifts for basketball players. The company handled gifts for seven conference basketball tournaments this year.

“Some of the conferences will go up to that ($325 per player) limit, and some will not,” said Lanie Cook, senior marketing executive with Goldner. “Some may be as small as doing a folding chair. Some might go with a Nintendo Wii with attachments.”

Butterly said the MWC has given gifts to basketball tournament participants since the league’s first season (1999-2000). The league has added gifts for participants in other championship events — men’s and women’s cross country, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s golf, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field and baseball. (The NCAA requires participation in a championship to receive a gift, so players in sports without championships — volleyball, football and softball — do not receive gifts).

This year, according to Butterly, the MWC budgeted $115 per gift for 396 individuals participating in the basketball tournament (18 teams with 22 players, coaches, managers and trainers). For the other championships the league budgeted $25 per gift for 2,500 student-athletes.

Combined, that’s $108,040 on gifts — which might seem like a lot until compared to major conferences. According to the report in the Sports Business Journal, the Pac-10 and Big Ten estimated they would cut “at least $300,000 from their annual expenses” by doing away with gifts. The MAC, the report said, expected to save $40,000.

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association also discussed cutting gifts at its annual meeting of member schools but decided against it. So each participating player, coach and staff member at the Final Five postseason tournament at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center received a knit cap and fleece jacket, according to WCHA assistant commissioner of operations Carol LaBelle-Ehrhardt.

“We watch things pretty closely (in the budget), but taking something away from the players would be the last thing we’d do,” she said. “We have the best league in the country so our postseason tournaments draws pretty well (16,414 for title game).”

In addition to promoting its brand, the gifts at league championship events also are “a way to say thank you to the student-athlete and teams,” Butterly said.

Players said they appreciated the gesture.

“It’s not a must or necessity or something I think they owe us,” Air Force junior forward Tom Fow said. “But it’s definitely nice to receive something like that.”