BYU students no longer need the fastest thumb in Provo to claim a football or men’s basketball ticket. They need to show up.
BYU Athletics announced Friday that the 2026-27 ROC system will drop first-come, first-served claims for football and men’s basketball. Every pass holder gets the same 24-hour request window. Entry priority will instead be influenced by verified attendance at selected Olympic-sport events.
ROC passes go on sale Monday, Aug. 3 at 10 a.m. Mountain Time. A full pass costs $250. The practical change is bigger than the price: buying the pass gives a student access to ticket claims, not automatic admission to every game.
That distinction will decide who has a smooth season and who ends up staring at the wrong screen outside a gate.
The 2026-27 ROC pass options
BYU listed four pass types in its announcement:
| Pass | Price | Who can buy it | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full ROC Pass | $250 | Current BYU student | Access to claim football, men’s basketball and regular-season Olympic-sport tickets |
| ROC Spousal Pass | $350 | Purchased through a student’s account for a non-student spouse | Spouse access tied to the student’s eligibility |
| Olympic ROC Pass | $75 | Current BYU student | Access to claim regular-season Olympic-sport tickets |
| Spousal Olympic ROC Pass | $100 | Purchased through a student’s account for a non-student spouse | Spouse access to regular-season Olympic-sport claims |
BYU says spousal inventory is limited. Students must link the spouse’s account before buying through the student’s BYU Tickets account.
The purchase path matters too. BYU directs students to BYU Tickets, then “student sign in.” Use the [email protected] address with the existing password. A first-time buyer should use the site’s code option to create a password rather than opening a separate ticket account.
All passes must be purchased online.
Football and basketball claims are no longer a race
Football and men’s basketball claim windows still open at noon on Tuesday before each home game. The window stays open for 24 hours. Requesting at 12:00:01 no longer carries an advantage over requesting later in that period.
That fixes the most obvious problem with a first-come system: ticket priority should not depend on who can refresh a page during class or work. The Daily Universe documented growing student frustration with recent ROC changes last December. BYU says the new policy followed a review of student attendance data and feedback.
The replacement is not a random drawing with identical entry groups. Attendance at women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s volleyball, gymnastics, women’s basketball, baseball and softball can improve a student’s position for an earlier stadium or arena entry group.
BYU is careful about what that means. A student does not have to attend an Olympic-sport event to receive a football or men’s basketball ticket. Olympic-sport attendance improves the chance of earlier entry. The release does not publish a points chart, promise a specific group after a certain number of games or say that one sport is worth more than another.
Any social post claiming “three volleyball matches guarantees Group 1” is making up a rule BYU has not announced.
The scan-out rule is the part students can miss
Students will scan their tickets when entering Olympic-sport events and again when leaving. BYU says the second scan verifies how long the student attended and is required for attendance credit.
Event staff will not stop everyone at the exit to make that happen. The pass holder owns the scan-out. Walking away after the final point without scanning may mean the game does not help ticket priority, even though the student was there.
This creates a simple game-day habit:
- Claim the individual event ticket.
- Scan the ticket at entry.
- Stay for the event rather than treating the gate as a check-in station.
- Scan out before leaving.
The policy is designed to reward actual support, not parking-lot attendance. That is a fair goal. The first few events will show whether the exit process is obvious enough when a crowd leaves at once.
Fans interested in building attendance history have immediate options. Women’s soccer has August events before the first football home game. Women’s volleyball begins with its Blue-White Scrimmage and Utah Tech exhibition, while the men’s volleyball season comes later. Our all-sports page keeps the current official schedules in one place.
Every ticketed event now needs an individual claim
The plastic or digital idea of a “pass” can be misleading. BYU says the ROC pass itself will not scan a student into an event. It unlocks access to claim an individual ticket, and that ticket is what gets scanned.
Olympic-sport claims open at 2 p.m. on game day. For a Saturday event, claims open at 2 p.m. Friday. The window remains open during the event unless the ROC section fills, so walk-up claims can still work when space remains.
This is useful for students who decide late to catch volleyball or softball. It also means “I bought the pass” is not enough preparation at the gate. Claim first, then pull up the actual ticket.
The women’s basketball schedule, baseball schedule and softball schedule become more than calendar pages under this system. They are chances to watch good BYU teams and build a verified attendance record before the highest-demand claims.
Return tickets you cannot use
A claimed ticket that goes unused should be returned through the student’s BYU Tickets account. Returned tickets enter a last-chance claim. For a Saturday home football game, that last-chance window opens Friday at 10 a.m.
BYU also says a pattern of claiming tickets, neither using nor returning them, will reduce future ticket access. The announcement does not define the number of misses that triggers a penalty, so students should not invent a grace total. If plans change, return the ticket.
That rule may do as much for access as the new priority formula. An empty student-section seat is frustrating when another pass holder would have taken it. A functioning return pool makes the pass more useful without adding capacity.
What to do before Monday
Students planning to buy should check three things before the 10 a.m. sale:
- Confirm the BYU Tickets login tied to the
[email protected]address. - Link a spouse’s account in advance if purchasing a spousal pass.
- Decide whether the full $250 pass or the $75 Olympic pass matches the events they actually plan to attend.
After the purchase, set reminders for the claim windows. Tuesday at noon matters for football and men’s basketball. Game day at 2 p.m., or Friday at 2 p.m. before a Saturday event, matters for Olympic sports. Friday at 10 a.m. is the football last-chance window.
The old system rewarded being first online. The new one asks students to build a season of receipts. It should send more people to teams that deserve a real student section, and it removes the silliest part of ticket claiming. Whether the priority formula feels fair will depend on details BYU has not yet published and how well the scan-out process works in a crowd.
For now, the useful rule is plain: claim the ticket, attend the game, scan out and return anything you cannot use.
