A college football player at the University of Central Florida was booted from the team for using his status to earn money on YouTube.
UCF kicker Donald De La Haye was given a choice: stop monetizing his YouTube channel, or continue earning money but stop referencing his status as a student athlete. If he chose not to meet those requirements, the university would retract his eligibility to receive scholarship funds and kick him from the team.
In an emotional video posted to his “Deestroying” YouTube channel, De La Haye admits to his more than 98,000 followers that he refused to demonetize his videos and is now ineligible to play college football.
“I really never though it would come down to this,” De La Haye said. “They proposed me some rules and conditions that they wanted me to follow, and I refused to. I didn’t feel like they were fair.”
The university defended its position in a post on Twitter, explaining the terms and reason for his departure from the team, “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 kicker @Deestroying has been ruled ineligible for not accepting the terms of a NCAA waiver in relation to monetizing his YouTube videos. pic.twitter.com/lIRmuoRDnC
— Brandon Helwig (@UCFSports) July 31, 2017
The NCAA then released a statement giving background on these types of cases. It claimed De La Haye had the option to continue playing after he was granted a waiver to accept money from non-athletic videos. As Engadget points out, the waiver, which is dealt with on a case-by-case basis, was issued because De La Haye sends the money he receives from YouTube videos to his family in Costa Rica.
NCAA statement regarding Donald De La Haye. pic.twitter.com/0W2YCbEBrF
— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) July 31, 2017
The NCAA statement says making YouTube videos, and even making money from them, is not a violation of its policies as long as video uploads are not based on “athletics reputation, prestige or ability.”
De La Haye wants to make video producing his career and plans to finish his education at the University of Central Florida. He started a Go Fund Me page looking for donations to help pay off his college expenses. It amassed more than $4,000 in just 17 hours.
“A lot of people would watch my videos, say I inspire them,” De La Haye said. “Say they loved what I do. Say I brought smiles to them, brighten up their day. I was just having innocent fun. But you know, the NCAA monsters, man. If it don’t benefit them, then they don’t want it.”
H/T Engadget