Intramural athletes could score free tuition

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, the original version of this story misrepresented the amount of REC*IT's tuition stipend. The stipend will be up to $20,000. The story has been updated to reflect these changes.

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Students registered for UNC Campus Recreation’s intramural leagues might have received text messages recently offering free tuition — but the money isn’t a UNC initiative.

UNC is one of 1,200 universities in the country using REC*IT, a mobile app associated with the website IMLeagues. REC*IT is offering a tuition stipend of up to $20,000 to one lucky winner.

Bill Goa, director of campus recreation, said IMLeagues — created by a UNC MBA student — is the website UNC Campus Recreation uses to better submit information and increase communication to reduce the amount of paper in the office.

“As an effort to get people to sign up for the app, they give kind of like a lottery or incentive, so IMLeagues is offering one year of tuition for one person throughout the entire country,” Goa said.

Goa said IMLeagues is free for students and campus recreation to use.

“IMLeagues helps teams register,” Goa said. “It’s a communication aspect. You go to a website and get your time to play and updates your rosters and things like that.”

Justin Ford, director of intramural sports, said while IMLeagues and REC*IT work together, they are two separate companies. No money is coming from UNC.

“Both of the programs are free of charge to all the universities and the students, so how they make their money is all generated through advertisements,” Ford said.

Ford said UNC has been using IMLeagues for six years, and the program was created at the Kenan-Flagler Business School by MBA student and co-founder Doug Myers as part of his entrepreneurial project.

“It was a very, I would say, dormant program to have because seven years ago we were still using pen and paper and printing scoresheets, and students would have to come the office to register for intramural sports,” Ford said.

Ford said using these two programs has simplified a lot of administrative work for campus recreation.

Goa said IMLeagues and REC*IT have done similar promotions in the past but at a smaller scale, such as giving away an iPod.

Students can use IMLeagues without having the REC*IT app, Goa said.

“A lot of people don’t want to download the app,” he said.

Goa said REC*IT is offering the promotion to try to change that and encourage more people to download the app.

Tori Hooker, intramural sports coordinator, said although campus recreation has nothing to do with IMLeagues and REC*IT, she thinks they’re great resources.

She said the programs automatically generate schedules for students’ games and track participation rates — saving effort for campus recreation officials and students alike.

“It’s just really a way we’re trying to help students get information quicker and faster by letting them know about other apps and things that are available that can tie in their recreation and intramural experience,” Hooker said.

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