With the start of its national college basketball tournament approaching, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) warned its student athletes and athletic staffs not to join any type of gambling pool.

But despite the warning, some student athletes—including at least one Crimson basketball player—have joined March Madness pools on the Facebook.

Although the Harvard men’s basketball team will not be playing in the NCAA tournament, rules discouraging gambling on college sports still apply. And while the Facebook pools are free to enter, contestants can win up to $25,000. Winning that money, according to the NCAA, might constitute gambling.

“It is a violation for student athletes, coaches, as well as administrators to participate in bracket contests for monetary benefit gain and sports wagering,” NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn told the Red and Black, the University of Georgia student newspaper. “A prize would be the same as monetary gain.”

The NCAA yesterday referred additional requests for comment to a statement on the organization’s Web site, which said that a student-athlete who engages in any sports wagering activity would be declared ineligible for competition for one year.

Assistant Basketball Coach Lamar Reddicks said that his players have already been warned against gambling of any kind. He did not comment on the Facebook pools in particular.

“Our players are informed by our compliance office and our staff,” Reddicks said. “Every year, our players are warned during their compliance meetings.”

Reddicks added that in light of the upcoming tournament, “our compliance office sent an e-mail today to our staff as a reminder to us, as well.”

Despite the reminder, Crimson guard Darryl W. Finkton Jr. ’10 said yesterday that he “didn’t even know we weren’t allowed to be in one.”

Finkton said he had entered a basketball pool on Facebook yesterday morning.

Crimson forward Evan K. Harris ’09 said he thought that it was fine to join tournament pools “as long as it’s not anything where you have to pay to enter.”

But Harris said that he thought Facebook pools “are off limits.”

Other Crimson athletes, however, said that they didn’t see a need to participate in sports pools.

“I haven’t joined pools since high school,” said women’s basketball guard Kyle J. Dalton ’07. “We’ve just been focused on our own tournaments.”

Guard James B. Lambert ’08 said that it was not important to gamble on basketball games.

“As a college player myself, I do not need any extra incentive to get excited for the tournament,” he said.

Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker said in a statement yesterday that users need to be sure they abide by NCAA rules before entering in the online contest.