BYU ROC Pass Explained: Requests, Priority, Transfer Rules (2026

Student Life September 2, 2026 15 min read ✓ Updated September 2, 2026

Abigail Giordano Senior Writer, Provo.com

The most expensive mistake a new BYU student makes in September is not the textbook. It is standing at the south gate of LaVell Edwards Stadium at kickoff with a ROC Pass on their phone and discovering that the pass is not a ticket. It never was. The ROC Pass is the right to ask for a ticket, and in 2026–27 the asking has changed shape again: the first-come, first-served claim of last year is gone, the random lottery of the two years before that is gone, and in their place is a 24-hour request window in which everyone's request counts the same — and a priority order, for the two sports students actually fight over, that is set by how many women's soccer and volleyball and gymnastics events a student has shown up to.

This guide explains the whole system as it stands for the 2026–27 season: the four passes and what they cost, why a pass is not admission, how the request window and the Olympic-sports priority work, the non-transfer rule and how it is enforced, the stand-by line, what a spouse and a non-student have to do instead, and the arithmetic on whether the $250 is worth it. It is written from BYU Athletics' own published ROC pages and its 2026–27 announcement, and it is hedged where the athletic department has left mechanics unspecified, because it has. The public-ticket side — the priority-points queue, single-game releases, the resale market — is covered in our BYU football tickets guide; the stadium and the arena on game day are in the football and basketball game-day guides. This page is the student's ticket system, and nothing else.

What the ROC Is

The ROC — the Roar of Cougars — is BYU's student section, and the ROC Board is the student organization that runs it: the chants, the shirt colors, the pre-game gatherings, the traditions in the south end zone at football and behind the baskets at basketball. The ROC Pass is the athletic department's product that puts a student in that section. The two are related but not the same; the Board runs the culture, the department runs the tickets, and when the ticket system changes, as it has three times in four years, it is the department changing it.

The Four Passes, and Their Prices

BYU Athletics announced the 2026–27 pass lineup in late July 2026 and put the passes on sale Monday, August 3, at 10 a.m. Four types:

Full ROC Pass — $250. For a current BYU student. Eligibility to request football and men's basketball tickets, plus admission to every other ticketed regular-season home event.
Olympic Sports ROC Pass — $75. For a current BYU student. Admission to every ticketed regular-season home event except football and men's basketball — more than 75 events across women's soccer, women's and men's volleyball, women's basketball, gymnastics, baseball and softball.
Spousal ROC Pass — $350. Purchased through a student's account for a non-student spouse; the spouse's access is tied to the student's eligibility.
Spousal Olympic Sports Pass — $100. The spousal version of the Olympic pass.

One pass per person. The full pass rose from $225 to $250 this year, which the athletic department attributed to the addition of a seventh home football game; it was $200 in 2023–24 and $150 in 2021–22, so the trend is not subtle. The guest pass — the pass that once let a student bring a non-student friend, priced at $220 in 2021 — has been discontinued, and the spousal pass is now the only non-student pass that exists.

Passes are bought at byutickets.com through the student's account, which the university creates for every enrolled student; BYU's own page warns students not to create a separate account, because a second account will not carry the student's eligibility. The pass is delivered by email after the enrollment verification clears, and lives in the BYU Cougars app.

The Distinction That Decides Everything: A Pass Is Not a Ticket

For most sports, the pass is the ticket: a student scans the pass at the gate of a volleyball match or a baseball game and walks in, general admission, student section.

For football and men's basketball, the pass is eligibility. Every home game has its own request process; a student with a pass submits a request; the request is either granted — a free digital ticket to the ROC section, with an entry group — or it is not. A student without a granted ticket does not get in on the pass alone, no matter how many hundred dollars it cost. BYU's page says it in capitals: your ROC Pass will not get you into the football game.

This is not new — the two-tier structure has existed since the guest-pass era — but the mechanism for deciding who gets the ticket has changed three times, and the 2026–27 version is the most different.

How the Request Works in 2026–27

The window. For each football and men's basketball home game, BYU opens a request window of about 24 hours on byutickets.com and the Cougars app. During the window, any ROC Pass holder (full or spousal) can submit one request. The request is free; the ticket, if granted, is free.

No advantage to being first. This is the headline change. In 2025–26 the system was a first-come, first-served claim, and students set alarms for the window's opening minute; in 2023–24 and 2024–25 it was a random lottery that assigned tickets and entry groups by chance. For 2026–27 the department has said explicitly that there is no benefit to requesting the moment the window opens. Everyone who requests inside the 24 hours is in the same pool.

Priority. The pool is then sorted by priority, and priority — per the department's announcement — is influenced by the student's verified attendance at selected Olympic-sports events. The Olympic sports are named: women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's volleyball, gymnastics, women's basketball, baseball and softball. Attendance is verified by scanning the pass at the gate. A student who has been to more of the selected events sits higher in the order for football and basketball tickets and, presumably, for entry groups.

What is not specified. The department's published material does not (as of this writing) spell out the formula: which specific events count, whether attendance is weighted equally, whether the priority is per game or cumulative across the year, whether it resets between the football and basketball seasons, or what tiebreaker applies among students with equal attendance. These mechanics are the department's to set and publish, they live on the ROC pages, and they can change mid-season; a student should read the current page before each request rather than rely on this one. The stated intent is the clearest thing about the system: under the lottery, the department said, students had no way to influence their chances or their group number, and now they do.

The stand-by line. A student whose request is not granted can join a physical stand-by line on game day, which has existed since the lottery era, for seats that open when granted tickets go unused. Its length and its odds depend on the opponent; for Notre Dame it is long.

The seventh game. The 2026 football schedule has seven home games, one more than usual, and the department has used that to explain both the price rise and the tighter supply of student tickets per game. A seventh game means a seventh request.

The Practical Consequence: Go to Volleyball

The system's designers said what they wanted, and it is what the students who understand it are doing: the way to raise the odds of a football ticket in October is to attend women's soccer in August and volleyball in September, scan the pass, and build attendance before the marquee requests. BYU's student newspaper quoted a student who put it bluntly — he would be at more Olympic-sports events because he was afraid of missing the Notre Dame game. That is the system working as intended, and it is also the source of the controversy the change generated: students who see it as a fair reward for supporting the whole athletic department, and students who see it as a $250 pass that now also costs Tuesday nights.

The honest guidance for a student who wants the big games: buy the full pass, go to five or six Olympic-sports events in the first six weeks of the fall (they are good, they are short, and the volleyball program in particular is worth the evening), and submit every football request inside the window without setting an alarm. Read the ROC page in August for that year's specifics.

The Non-Transfer Rule

BYU's ROC terms, quoted here in substance: the pass is non-transferable; use of a pass or a claimed ticket by anyone other than the original purchaser may result in revocation of the pass without refund; unauthorized resale or transfer is prohibited and may lead to denial of entry, removal from the event, and cancellation of the pass.

The rule is enforced at the gate, where the digital ticket and the student ID are scanned together, and after the fact, where a pattern of tickets used by the wrong person can void a pass mid-season with no money back. The ROC Board reminds students of it every fall. A student who has a granted ticket they cannot use should release it through the ticketing system so it returns to the pool for the stand-by line; handing it to a roommate is the specific act the rule targets.

Two things the rule does not prohibit: a spouse using a spousal pass (that is what it is for), and a student choosing not to attend. It also does not prohibit the non-student paths — season tickets, single-game public sales, the resale market — which our football tickets guide covers in full, including what Utah law says about resale.

Who Is Locked Out, and What They Do Instead

Non-student spouses: the spousal pass, bought through the student's account, at $350 (full) or $100 (Olympic). The spouse's access is tied to the student's eligibility; if the student's pass is revoked, the spouse's goes with it.

Non-student friends and family: the public path. Season tickets through the priority-points queue; single-game tickets when the department releases them; the resale market. The guest pass that once covered this is gone.

UVU students: the public path for BYU games, and — the better deal — their own campus, where Wolverines games are free or nearly free with a student ID.

BYU alumni and recent graduates: the public path, and the alumni association's occasional group offers. Graduation ends ROC eligibility at the end of the pass year.

Students who bought the Olympic pass and want one football game: the stand-by line, or the public single-game sale if one happens for that opponent. The Olympic pass carries no football or basketball request eligibility.

The Arithmetic

The full pass is $250 for a season of seven home football games, sixteen or so home men's basketball games, and more than 75 Olympic-sports events. Per football game, before anything else, that is about $36 — and a single public ticket to a marquee game can cost more than the entire pass. For a student who will attend broadly, the pass is the best sports value on the Wasatch Front and it is not close.

The caveats are the ones the system creates. The pass does not guarantee a football or basketball ticket; a student who wants only the two big sports and will attend nothing else is buying a request with a low priority. The Olympic pass at $75 covers everything except the two sports most students buy the pass for. And the spousal pass at $350 is the only non-student path, which for a married student couple makes the pair $600.

The rule of thumb: full pass if you will go to fifteen or more events across the year; Olympic pass if you like the small sports and can live with stand-by for football; neither if you want Notre Dame and nothing else, in which case the public market for that one game may be cheaper than $250 plus a semester of Tuesday nights.

The Game-Day Basics for the Section

For football, the ROC is the south end zone of LaVell Edwards Stadium: general admission, standing, filled in entry-group order, with the Board's shirt color for the game announced in the week before. For men's basketball, it is the lower bowl behind the baskets in the Marriott Center, general admission, filled the same way. A granted ticket carries an entry group, and the group determines when a student enters and therefore where they stand; the priority system's effect on entry groups is the other half of why attendance matters. The Board's pre-game gathering, the tunnel walk and the traditions are in our football game-day guide and basketball game-day guide; Homecoming week has its own.

A Short History, Because the System Keeps Changing

For context on why students distrust each new version: in 2021–22 the pass was $150 and admission to everything, with a $220 guest pass for non-students. In 2023–24 the price rose to $200, the guest pass was dropped, and football and basketball moved to a random lottery for tickets and entry groups, which ended the days-long line-ups but removed any way to influence the odds. In 2025–26 the lottery became a first-come, first-served claim at $225, which rewarded whoever was fastest at the window's opening. For 2026–27 the claim became a 24-hour request with attendance-based priority at $250. Four systems in six years; a student who arrived in 2021 and stayed for a master's degree has been ticketed four different ways. The constant across all of them is the one this page opened with: the pass is eligibility, and the ticket is separate.

What to Do in August

Buy the pass through your existing BYU Tickets account on or after the August sale date; do not create a new account. Download the Cougars app and confirm the pass appears. Read that year's ROC page for the request mechanics and the list of Olympic-sports events that count. Go to the first women's soccer match and the first volleyball match and scan the pass. Note the request window for the first home football game and submit inside it, without an alarm. Do not hand your ticket to anyone. And if you are married, decide about the spousal pass before the first request window, because it cannot be added at the gate.

The Short Version

The 2026–27 ROC Pass is $250 (full), $75 (Olympic), $350 and $100 (spousal), one per person, on sale from August 3. It is admission to every ticketed sport except the two that matter most; for football and men's basketball it is eligibility to submit one request per game inside a 24-hour window, with no advantage to being first and priority set by verified attendance at women's soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, women's basketball, baseball and softball. Granted tickets are free, digital, non-transferable and enforced; ungranted ones go to a stand-by line. The guest pass is gone; spouses use the spousal pass; everyone else uses the public path. Go to volleyball in September if you want Notre Dame in the fall.

Related Guides

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ROC Pass, and does it get me into football games?

The ROC Pass is BYU's student all-sports pass — named for the Roar of Cougars student section — and no, on its own it does not get you into a football or men's basketball game. It gets you the right to request a ticket. For football and men's basketball, every ROC Pass holder submits a request during a window for each game, and the request either yields a free digital ticket to the student section or it does not; the pass is the eligibility, the request is the ticket. For every other ticketed sport — women's soccer, women's and men's volleyball, gymnastics, women's basketball, baseball, softball — the pass is admission. The distinction is the single most important thing about the system, and it is the one new students get wrong at the gate.

What does the ROC Pass cost for 2026–27?

Four pass types, per BYU Athletics' 2026–27 announcement: the full ROC Pass at $250 for a current BYU student (up from $225 the year before, which the athletic department attributed to a seventh home football game); the Olympic Sports ROC Pass at $75, which covers every ticketed sport except football and men's basketball; the Spousal ROC Pass at $350, bought through a student's account for a non-student spouse; and the Spousal Olympic Sports Pass at $100. Passes went on sale August 3, 2026. One pass per person. The guest pass, which once let a student bring a non-student friend, has been discontinued; the spousal pass is the only non-student pass that exists.

How does the ticket request work for football and men's basketball?

For each home game, BYU opens a request window of about 24 hours on byutickets.com and the BYU Cougars app. Every ROC Pass holder can submit one request during that window, and — this is the 2026–27 change — there is no advantage to being first. Requests are then filled by priority, and priority is set by the student's verified attendance at selected Olympic-sports events. Students granted a ticket receive a free digital ticket to the ROC section with an entry group; students not granted one can join a stand-by line on game day for seats that open up. Before 2026–27 the system was a first-come, first-served claim (2025–26) and before that a random lottery (2023–24 and 2024–25); the request-and-priority model replaced both.

What counts as Olympic-sports attendance, and how does it raise my priority?

BYU's announcement names women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's volleyball, gymnastics, women's basketball, baseball and softball as the Olympic sports, and says that verified attendance at selected events in those sports will influence a student's entry priority for football and men's basketball. The mechanics — how attendance is verified (scanning the pass at the gate), which events count, how much each one moves the priority, and whether the effect is per game or cumulative across the year — are set by the athletic department and published on its ROC pages, and they can change mid-season. The intent, in BYU's own words, is to give students a way to influence their odds that the lottery never offered. The practical effect is that a student who wants Notre Dame in the fall goes to a volleyball match in September.

Can I give my ticket to a friend, or sell it?

No. BYU's ROC terms say the pass is non-transferable, that use of a pass or a claimed ticket by anyone other than the original purchaser may result in revocation without refund, and that unauthorized resale or transfer is prohibited and may lead to denial of entry, removal from the event and cancellation of the pass. The digital ticket is tied to the student's account and ID, and the gate scans both. A student who cannot use a claimed football ticket should release it through the ticketing system so it goes to the stand-by pool; passing it to a roommate is the thing the rule exists to stop, and the athletic department enforces it.

Where is the ROC section, and what is it like?

For football, the south end zone of LaVell Edwards Stadium, general admission, standing for the whole game; for men's basketball, the lower bowl behind the baskets in the Marriott Center, general admission. Entry groups assigned with the ticket determine the order the section fills, which is why the priority system matters beyond simply getting in — a low entry group means the back of the section. The ROC Board, the student organization that runs the section's traditions, sets the chants, the shirt colors and the pre-game gathering; our football and basketball game-day guides cover the stadium and the arena themselves.

I'm a UVU student, or not a student at all. What do I do?

The ROC system is closed to you: only enrolled BYU students and their spouses can hold a pass. A UVU student or a non-student buys through the public ticket path — season tickets, single-game tickets when released, or the resale market — which our BYU football tickets guide explains, including the priority-points queue that decides who gets to buy first. UVU students should also know that their own campus's Wolverines games are free or nearly free with a student ID, which our UVU game-day guide covers. The one loophole that existed, the guest pass, is gone.

Is the $250 worth it?

Arithmetic. The full pass is about $36 a home football game across seven games, before basketball and the more than 75 Olympic-sports home events it also covers; a single public ticket to one marquee football game can cost more than the whole pass. The honest caveats: the pass does not guarantee a football or basketball ticket, so a student who only wants the two big sports and does not intend to attend anything else is buying a request with a priority that will be low; and a student who will go to five events all year is better served by the $75 Olympic pass and the stand-by line. For a student who will attend broadly, the full pass is the best sports value on the Wasatch Front. For a student who wants Notre Dame and nothing else, it is a lottery ticket that costs $250 and rewards going to volleyball.

Abigail Giordano

Senior Writer

Abigail Giordano is a senior writer at Provo.com covering student life, family resources, and community events across Utah Valley. Her writing focuses on making Provo more accessible and navigable for newcomers, students, and families — the practical guides that help people feel at home faster.

BYU Student Sports Tickets: The ROC Pass, the 24-Hour Request Window, the Olympic-Sports Priority System That Replaced the Lottery, and the Transfer Rules (2026–27)