Recent changes made by BYU Athletics will require students to attend “Olympic Sports” games to increase their odds of obtaining tickets to men’s basketball or football games during the 2026-27 season.
The new system will give students 24 hours to request a ticket to a sporting event — but there will be no benefit to requesting a ticket when the window opens. This is a change from the prior 2025-26 system, which was a first-come, first-served lottery that rewarded students with tickets to basketball and football games.
Now, student’s request for a sporting event ticket will be based on their Olympic Sport attendance. Olympic Sports include women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's volleyball, gymnastics, women's basketball, baseball and softball games at BYU.
BYU Athletics stated the goal of the new system is to give “students more control over their experience.”
“Under the previous lottery system, students had no way to influence their chances of receiving a football or men’s basketball ticket or their group number,” they stated.
This change has been in the development stage for several months. After rolling out the new policy on social media, BYU Athletics was not surprised by significant student backlash.
“Whenever there’s a change to the ROC Pass system, we expect students to have questions,” they said. “Our biggest priority has been making sure students understand how the new system works so they can make the most of their ROC Pass.”
BYU students and the sports community have been pushing back against the ROC policy changes. Nathan VanWoerkom, a BYU ROC pass holder and senior studying accounting, stated that the new system is catered toward underclassmen.
“I just feel like they’ll have all the time in the world than upperclassmen who will have work and dating,” he said. “They’ll just be a lot more involved on campus.”
Ben Kirby, a BYU sports enthusiast and senior studying nursing, stated that he usually works during the week to attend football games on the weekend. The new system won’t work with his busy schedule.
“We try to work as hard as we can during the week to get ahead on homework and working at our jobs so that we can have Saturday or Friday off for football games,” Kirby said.
Many have argued that this new requirement will build support for other sporting events on campus. However, Kirby argued that most of the Olympic Sports are pretty full, as is.
“I’ve gone to plenty of those, and they’re generally pretty full,” he said. “There aren’t that many more seats, if any, for a lot of the games for people to go to.”
However, BYU Athletics stated that they are not trying to put busier students at a disadvantage. They also stated that attending even a small number of Olympic Sports games could improve their odds.
“We believe most students who want to attend an Olympic Sports event and improve their group number will have opportunities to find a game that fits their schedule,” they said. “We anticipate that even attending two or three Olympic events during a semester would make a significant difference in improving a group number.”
VanWoerkom stated that he would be happy to revert back to the 2025-26 ROC system.
“To be perfectly honest, I had my qualms with the system last year, but I would be so happy if they just changed back to what it was last year,” he said.
Despite their frustrations, both VanWoerkom and Kirby stated that they will be purchasing ROC passes.
“I’m still planning on getting a ROC pass, and I’m sure I’m going to go to as many of the football games and basketball games as I can,” Kirby said.
VanWoerkom stated that he will try to attend more Olympic Sports this year, mainly out of fear.
“I will be at more Olympic Sports events because I am so fearful, for example, of the Notre Dame football game,” he said. “I’m almost living in fear that if I don’t go, then I’m just going to get chewed over.”
These policy changes also come as the pass has reached a new high of $250 for individual students. This change is not a surprise for many BYU students, as frustration over price changes has been occurring since the 2015-16 season.
Anna Metcalf with BYU Athletics stated that the increase from $225 to $250 for the 2026-27 season is a result of an additional football game.
“With the addition of a seventh football game, prices for all tickets across the stadium were increased accordingly,” she said.
She continued that the additional $25 per pass will be distributed to the BYU Athletics operational budget.
“The BYU Athletic Department operates on a self-sustaining basis,” Metcalf said. “No funding is provided by the university or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
The ROC policy changes and price increases also align with an increasing demand.
“We attribute the demand for the pass to BYU’s growing student body size, entrance into the Big 12 Conference, and the improved performance of our teams, especially football and men’s basketball,” Metcalf said.
For more information about the ROC pass and upcoming BYU events, visit this website.