D1 football player loses scholarship for having successful YouTube channel

Good thing I don't have a YouTube

To be fair, it was UCF who ruled him ineligible first.

This is the problem with our country. This country is built upon an idea of keeping people financially scared. If you have found a way to make some solid easy cash there is always some big shot coming out to regulate it and say nope not going to happen.

Serves him right for taking the initiative and having a successful business! This must be stopped as early as possible.

Imagine what would happen to the economy if people didn't need to take bank loans anymore...

I don't see what the big deal is here. The rules are pretty explicit in terms of making money off your likeness in the NCAA. How the hell is he going to say that he didn't want to demonetize his videos, and in the same breath same he does his videos to "inspire people"? If that was the case then demonetizing wouldn't be a big deal. I know it seems cruel in this example but this is self-inflicted and he is dragging this out. Paying college athletes for their likeness would vastly distort the recruiting process in favor of the richest schools who can afford to do it. With that being said, the NCAA should start spending that surplus they've been accumulating too.

Captain_Life wrote:

I don't see what the big deal is here. The rules are pretty explicit in terms of making money off your likeness in the NCAA. How the hell is he going to say that he didn't want to demonetize his videos, and in the same breath same he does his videos to "inspire people"? If that was the case then demonetizing wouldn't be a big deal. I know it seems cruel in this example but this is self-inflicted and he is dragging this out. Paying college athletes for their likeness would vastly distort the recruiting process in favor of the richest schools who can afford to do it. With that being said, the NCAA should start spending that surplus they've been accumulating too.

Because the NCAA makes a sh!t ton of money off of athlete's likenesses, but if they do little stuff like a youtube channel to try to make money themselves they get screwed over. He also makes the videos because he knows his NFL odds are slim and this is money and experience for when he enters the workforce.

Captain_Life wrote:

I don't see what the big deal is here. The rules are pretty explicit in terms of making money off your likeness in the NCAA. How the hell is he going to say that he didn't want to demonetize his videos, and in the same breath same he does his videos to "inspire people"? If that was the case then demonetizing wouldn't be a big deal. I know it seems cruel in this example but this is self-inflicted and he is dragging this out. Paying college athletes for their likeness would vastly distort the recruiting process in favor of the richest schools who can afford to do it. With that being said, the NCAA should start spending that surplus they've been accumulating too.

You don't understand the situation.

The college wasn't paying for him nor was the NCAA so your last 2 sentences are nonsensical. This guy was getting money from Youtube advertising based on amount of users and/or views he got.

wow not fair at all wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh69-X6X55w

Wow this is absurd. The NCAA just ruled UCF's kicker ineligible for making money from Youtube. I wonder if this will apply to the non-revenue sports as well. I know of at least a few college runners with a YouTube following...

I get why it sounds absurd, but think about this for a minute.

This guy is already being paid handsomely to be the BACKUP kicker/kickoff specialist at UCF. He's the backup. The cost of attendance for UCF is $22,000 for instate. So basically over 4 years, he's making well more than $100,000 if you think of it pre-tax.

The NCAA isn't opposed to him making youtube videos - hell even getting a following on there. They are simply opposed to him monetizing it. The reason for this is simple. If they allow it, then schools will figure out a way for every player on the team to have youtube channels where every fan clicks on and they all get cash. The big schools with huge followings would have even more of an advantage than they already do.

“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," UCF said in a statement. "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.”

The kid wanted the fame and turned that down. There is ZERO chance his videos are making anywhere close the $25,000 he was getting from UCF for football (pre-tax).

I'm tried of people saying the NCAA makes a ton of money off of sports. Most sports departments lose money - a lot of it.

In 2013, only , even though only 20 of the 128 programs in the NCAA's top tier of college football — the Football Bowl Subdivision — reported a profit. At UCF, each of the 60,000 students pays over $300 per year to subsidize the athletic program.

The quotes and stats came from the following articles:

"https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2017/07/31/central-florida-kicker-ruled-ineligible-youtube-videos/527293001/

I don't think you understand the situation. He can't operate a lemonade stand either.

Disagreeing with the rule and premise is a whole different matter but remember these rules are in place because of past abuses. Who's to stop Buddy Garrity from purchasing an inordinate amount Landing Strip advertisements on this YouTube channel to support this athlete?

Same thing happened last year with a female rower at Boston University who has a beauty channel. She tells her story here:

https://youtu.be/dDiLfezUH7Y

Why isn't Trump swooping in to vigorously defend this young entrepreneur? Shouldn't the Orange One be ripping UCF and the NCAA via his usual 140 character blasts?

So people don't want a football player to make more money off of youtube as extra cash but they are happy with tax cuts for billionaires as they earned it.

God bless 'merica

Those are the rules. Don't like them? Fine. Plenty of us are faced with decisions that very rarely benefit us. I'm a little shocked that he threw away his entire scholarship for something like a youtube channel. He's not remotely famous like some other Youtube stars like Casey Neistat and PewPie whatever his name is. There are plenty more on the rise.

Beyond the NCAA jargon, let's talk about an issue that nobody has brought up yet.

He was essentially was only out for himself when he made this decision and didn't think about the one thing that is preached from day one from the coaches they day he arrived on campus...TEAM.

In my opinion, his Youtube channel was more important than his scholarship, his teammates, and his own football career. What an insult to any walk-on on the UCF program that wants a scholarship more than anything, and De La Haye discards it like yesterday's trash.

What I find even more grating is that he opened up a GOFUNDME page to cover his tuition. Don't BEG for something you just willingly gave up, kid.

Also, what type of content is he going post no that he has no involved with UCF football? That was basically 90% of his content.

While in principle I agree, he was the backup punter...hardly a crucial member of the team.

So he was a non-competitor by nature? What's stopping him from trying to beat out the starting placekicker? Happens all the time if the starter gets hurt, has a few bad games, etc. It's not like he was non-scholarship player that coaches could care less about. He was actually playing.

The experience of playing college sports is a once in lifetime thing. I guess it wasn't that important to him.

First, I am all for a liberalization of the rules about athletes making money off their likenesses. For those who think that will tilt the field to the Alabama's, Ohio State's, Duke's and Kentucky's I have bad news: The field is already tilted toward them.

Second, The kicker essentially signed a contract that involved following all NCAA rules. One of those rules that is made quite clear is that he cannot make money off his likeness (although I think there are some very limited exceptions and ones that he did not meet apparently).

There was a similar case with a Minnesota wrestler who is a rapper and made money off his songs. In his case, he might have made more from that than his grant-in-aid was worth--wrestlers rarely get full rides, whereas all D1 football grants-in-aid are full rides.

The NCAA is a giant criminal antitrust conspiracy.

Any job that this guy gets is money made off of his likeness. Even if he works at McDonald's and gets a promotion, it would be because he the person would be known to be a superior worker. What if he chooses to do modeling - that's the likeness of his face, and of his body, even though it has nothing to do with him being a UCF athlete. Making money off of his likeness has NOT been made quite clear at all; it's a very vague phrasing, and even if clarified it stifles professional development, which is allegedly what going to college is all about. The NCAA has this obsession with amateur status and students not making any money -- it's a relic of the past and needs to go.

Time to double down on the YouTube thing, don't you think?