Workaround

From the New York Times: ...Several states have enacted laws banning state-funded travel to certain other states because of legal climates seen as discriminatory, including those related to so-called religious freedom or bathroom bills. The states most commonly the focus of the roughly half-dozen bans are North Carolina and Mississippi. California has a law prohibiting taxpayer-funded travel to eight states, including several that frequently host college championship events: not only North Carolina, but also Kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee — and Texas. In essence, and with several exceptions, the California law bans the use of state money to pay for travel to those states, a prohibition that generally applies to California’s numerous public universities, including, arguably, their sports teams.

Last year, U.C.L.A. played in the second weekend of the tournament in Memphis. California’s public university teams have felt compelled to devise legal workarounds. The men’s basketball committee, which selected the 36 teams that received at-large bids to the N.C.A.A. tournament and seeded all 68 in the field, disregarded state travel bans, said its chairman, Bruce Rasmussen, the Creighton athletic director. 

"We, unfortunately, do not control where we play in the tournament, and we will not deny our student-athletes the opportunity for postseason play,” Shana Wilson, a senior associate athletic director for U.C.L.A., wrote in an email. She confirmed that last year, U.C.L.A. used revenue generated by the athletic department — sources like ticket sales, donations and sponsorships, but not direct state funding — to pay for the Bruins’ trip to Memphis...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/sports/ncaa-final-four-travel-bans.html