Virginia basketball guard Kyle Guy and his fiancee may be shorting themselves some loot after they took down their wedding registry for fear it might violate NCAA rules.
Yahoo Sports reported that Guy told reporters Thursday that he took down the registry at the behest of the NCAA.
"That was crazy to me that that's illegal because that's what a registry is for," Guy said. "The NCAA said it was illegal so I'm not going to argue with it."
Virginia's Kyle Guy and his fiancee can't start their wedding registry because NCAA. pic.twitter.com/kuFB3O8A0f
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) April 4, 2019
The real problem with the registry began when the website Busted Coverage ran a story about Guy’s registry and encouraged fans to buy gifts for the couple. That inevitably caught the eye of Virginia’s compliance department, which interpreted the registry as a potential violation of the rules as they relate to "extra benefits" for student-athletes.
Alexa Jenkins, Guy's fiancée, tweeted about the incident.
"NCAA compliance said it was a violation so I had to make it to where only I can see it," Jenkins said via a tweet which has since been deleted.
NCAA president Mark Emmert disputed Guy's version of events, saying that receiving wedding gifts is not a violation.
"What we know right now is that nobody in the NCAA said anything of the sort. We don't know what the source of that information was, whether it came from the institution or not. It's certainly not the case that that's a violation of NCAA rules," Emmert said.
"We allow people to have all the usual and accustomed gifts among families and friends at all holidays and weddings of the sort. There's not a prohibition against that. We've been reaching back out already to the university to try to find out what transpired there. That's simply an inaccurate story."
The NCAA would later follow up with an official statement on the matter. "As NCAA President Mark Emmert stated in the Men's Final Four press conference today, this is 'simply an inaccurate story.' Typical wedding gifts from family and friends are not violations," the statement said.
For its part, Virginia was just trying to ensure one of its stars remained eligible to play with the Final Four coming up this weekend.
"Once we were informed about Kyle and Alexa's wedding registry being online and publicized by a media entity, our Compliance Office instructed Kyle to make the wedding registry private to help ensure there would be no issues with his eligibility," Erich Bacher, Virginia assistant athletic director, told Yahoo Sports via email.
"Since that time the UVA Compliance Office has been in communication with the NCAA and while neither the NCAA nor UVA desire to interrupt typical gift giving practices, we will attempt to ensure that student-athletes are not receiving benefits that would violate NCAA rules. We appreciate the NCAA staff and its prompt assistance in handling this matter."
