Laser Tag Leads To NCAA Violations For Louisville’s Basketball Team

SteveHolt9 years ago

Who doesn’t love laser tag? Getting to the course early on a Friday night, coming up with a witty username that will make all the other taggers laugh, hitting Groupon to get a third round in, free of charge — that is what college is all about, baby.

I’ve spent many a night in college wrecking 12-year-olds on the laser tag course. You could call me a laser tag veteran, but I still believe I haven’t even hit my prime yet. Yeah, I have my photo on the wall at the South Austin Laser Emporium — big deal. That isn’t the end game for me. I want to be one of the best taggers in the nation.

Louisville basketball loves laser tag so much, it allegedly led to an NCAA violation. The Cardinals use LT as recruiting tool (probably why they get so many talented players, tbh). Unfortunately, some players may have gotten a little greedy with the per diem money and it could cost the Cardinals, BIG TIME.

From Sporting News:

On April 19, six members of the men’s basketball team took a trip to a local laser tag facility where they were given admission money by the program, according to information obtained by Sporting News in an open records request. But because those players received money for admission outside of the playing season, Louisville’s compliance office had to self-report the news to the NCAA. All six players were then ordered to donate their $7 admission fee to charity.

The fun didn’t stop there.

On that same day, two recruits accompanied the team to laser tag. Louisville basketball was allowed to pay the cost of admission for the two prospective student-athletes, but their host students forgot — we’ve all done this, naturally — to take the cost of admission out of the money they’d been given to act as hosts.

Louisville’s compliance staff made the two host players pay up, and then reminded them it’s not cool to forget to deduct expenses from their host money budget.

This is why the NCAA exists: to come down hard on cheaters who are irresponsibly spending $7 on LT admission fees. Major props to NCAA prez Mark Emmert for finally putting his foot down when it comes to laser tag, which, by the way, should be an NCAA sport on its own.

Louisville basketball will land back on its feet at some point, but this violation could be tough to recover from. Sending prayers to all the Cardinals fans in Jefferson County today..

[via Sporting News]

Image via YouTube