Barack Obama’s recent appearance on the campus of the University of North Carolina to hoop it up with the Tar Heels basketball team broke an NCAA rule, but the athletic association will ignore it due to a “great opportunity for the student-athletes to interact with a presidential candidate,” said NCAA media relations director Eric Christianson.

At issue is North Carolina’s coach attending the scrimmage and the timing of the game, which was held during a period when scrimmages are generally not permitted.