PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley University Department of Athletics is joining forces with Peoria Public Schools District 150 to support the "Every Student, Every Day" Attendance Initiative for the 2007 fall semester. In an effort to encourage perfect attendance in District 150 schools, Bradley Athletics is offering students up to two free tickets to attend the Dec. 22 men's basketball game versus 2007 NCAA Tournament participant VCU at Carver Arena.

Any District 150 student who completes the 2007 fall semester with perfect attendance will receive a voucher to claim two free tickets for the Dec. 22 game against the Rams, while any student with no more than two absences during the 2007 fall semester will receive a voucher for one free ticket to the game. The vouchers will be distributed to the eligible students by their principals at a recognition ceremony at each school and will be redeemable at the Peoria Civic Center Box Office on Saturday, Dec. 22. Bradley will recognize the District 150 Perfect Attendance students in attendance at the game during a timeout or at halftime. All students receiving free ticket vouchers will be able to purchase up to four additional tickets for $4 each.

In addition, Bradley men's basketball players and cheerleaders will visit the top five schools in number of perfect attendance students on Dec. 20 to deliver the ticket vouchers and address the student body.

"Bradley Athletics is very pleased to be involved with this terrific initiative," Bradley Director of Athletics Ken Kavanagh said. "Graduation is our number one goal for each of our student-athletes. In turn, the first step towards achieving academic success is punctual attendance and we commend the fine folks in District 150 for devising a reward system for those students who overcome the various daily trials and tribulations to make it to school each day. We look forward to recognizing these quality young people at our Braves Basketball game in late December and hope that the total grouping is a large number of honorees".

The game between the Braves and Rams figures to be one of the top inter-regional matchups in the country during the non-conference portion of the season. Bradley is coming off back-to-back 22-win campaigns, reaching the Sweet 16 of the 2006 NCAA Tournament and the 2007 MasterCard National Invitational Tournament. VCU swept the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season and postseason tournament championships last season before upsetting Duke in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Individually, the teams feature two of the top point guards in the nation. Bradley's Daniel Ruffin, a product of District 150, is the nation's active leader with 475 career assists and VCU's Eric Maynor was the CAA Player of the Year in 2007.

The Dec. 22 game at Carver Arena will be the return matchup from last year's O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters meeting in Richmond, Va., a 73-64 Bradley victory that was televised nationally on ESPN2.