AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas and University of Arkansas Men’s Basketball programs will play a charity exhibition game on Saturday, Oct. 29 at Moody Center. All proceeds from the event will be donated to a pair of organizations supporting social justice equity and educational opportunities to youth in Central Texas communities, Seedling Foundation and Break the Pipeline.
Tip time has been set for 3 pm Central, and the game will be televised by Longhorn Network. Tickets will be priced at $25 for all reserved seats, and this charity exhibition will not be included in the UT Men’s Basketball season-ticket package.
Current season ticket holders will be given the opportunity to purchase their seats for the game starting Tuesday, Sept. 27 and running through Monday, Oct. 10. Longhorn Foundation donors who are not season ticket holders will be able to purchase seats beginning Friday, Oct. 14 through Sunday, Oct. 16. If any seats remain available after those two windows, the general public will be able to purchase tickets on Monday, Oct. 17. The new floor-level student seating will be held as General Admission, and UT students will use their Big Tickets (UT Student ID) to enter Moody Center and be directed to the student section.
This will mark the first Texas Basketball event for the public in the first year of Moody Center. The NCAA recently expanded its waiver guidelines to permit a Division I men’s basketball program to request to conduct one of its two preseason contests against a Division I opponent to raise funds for charities focused on social justice initiatives.
The UT Division of Diversity and Community Engagement (DDCE) and the Longhorns for Equity, Access and Diversity (LEAD) Initiative partner with non-profit organizations who support diverse communities and are committed to challenging and overcoming inequalities in our growing Central Texas area. The following pair of organizations are critical partners supporting social justice equity and educational opportunities to youth in our Central Texas communities.
Seedling Foundation (www.seedlingmentors.org) provides school-based mentoring for Central Texas children impacted by parental incarceration. One in twenty-eight (1:28) children in Austin-area schools have a parent in prison or jail. After serving 472 children during the 2021-22 school year with in-school mentoring, Seedling is expanding to serve six new school districts in Central Texas, including Del Valle, Hays, Pflugerville, KIPP and Austin Achieve. Proceeds from the charity exhibition game will greatly support this transition and ensure services in the current Austin Independent School District (AISD) are not interrupted due to sharing of resources often expected with this kind of growth.
Break the Pipeline (www.breakthepipeline.org) supports children at risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system through prevention, intervention and advocacy programs. Though programming centers on youth, Break the Pipeline also provides family and community programming to support the whole child. In the United States, approximately two million children are impacted by the criminal justice system. In the state of Texas, 12 million people are in prison, jailed, on probation or parole. Break the Pipeline is currently developing a new program in partnership with the Travis County District Attorney’s office that will focus on restorative practices for youth at risk of entering the criminal justice system. Support from the charity exhibition game will allow Break the Pipeline to expand services to support more youth throughout Travis County while providing meaningful services that disrupt the incarceration cycle.
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