Youtube
When UCF kicker Donald De La Haye isn’t busy drilling field goals for the Golden Knight’s football team, he’s busy posting videos to his successful YouTube channel. De La Haye’s videos are pretty popular, as his channelDeestroying currently has over 54 thousand subscribers.
But unfortunately for De La Haye, the tyrannical NCAA noticed.
De La Haye has advertisements that run on his videos, which does not make the NCAA nor UCF happy. They claim he’s using his likeness as a student athlete to make money, so they gave him an ultimatum: De La Haye can either stop collecting dough from his YouTube channel or quit playing college football.
After a couple of weeks of back and forth deliberation, the ruling came down today that UCF had decided to rule De La Haye ineligible.
Knights coach Scott Frost said last week during the start of preseason camp De La Haye was a member of the team and the UCF Athletics Association worked to seek an NCAA waiver that would allow De La Haye to keep posting YouTube videos while competing for the Knights.
De La Haye and NCAA officials, however, could not reach an agreement that would keep him in the field. Once De La Haye declined the NCAA’s waiver terms, UCF suspended him to avoid repercussions for working with a a player the NCAA was likely to later rule ineligible.
“Every time I step into that compliance building, I hear nothing but bad news,” De La Haye said in a video posted Monday night on YouTube. “I’m ruled ineligible because I refuse to de-monetize my videos, something that I’ve worked so hard for. Something that I have put blood, sweat and tears into. Something that I eat, sleep, breathe about. … and I get deemed ineligible to continue playing college sports because of it.”
The University of Central Florida released an official statement on the NCAA’s ruling about De La Hay:
“The waiver, which was granted, stated De La Haye could maintain his eligibility and continue to monetize videos that did not reference his status as a student-athlete or depict his football skill or ability. The waiver also allowed him to create videos that referenced his status as a student-athlete or depict his football skill or ability if they were posted to a non-monetized account. De La Haye chose not to accept the conditions of the waiver and has therefore been ruled ineligible to compete in NCAA-sanctioned competition. UCF Athletics wishes him the best in his future endeavors.”
Chalk this one up as another victory of the evil empire of the NCAA. Their day will come soon enough.
All I wanted was to keep inspiring and motivating others through my content. Didn’t know it would cost me my education.
There are SO many things wrong with the NCAA. Exhibit A right here
I want to be the voice that “student-athletes” need!
I’d hate for something like this to happen to another athlete that wants to chase their dream!
Donald De La Haye, NCAA: Full Story & Must-See Details
