ORLANDO, Fla. – A University of Central Florida place-kicker who has tens of thousands of subscribers on YouTube has opted to waive his eligibility so he can continue filming videos, according to a statement from the school's athletic department.
Donald De La Haye's YouTube videos came under fire in June because the NCAA was concerned that he was using his status as a student-athlete to promote his online business, which is against the association's bylaws.
The UCF athletics department said Monday that the school submitted a waiver on De La Haye's behalf, stipulating that the marketing major could continue to monetize his online videos as long as he did "not reference his status as a student-athlete or depict his football skill or ability."
He would have still been permitted to post videos that showed he was an athlete, but those videos would need to be 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 athletics department said in a statement.
"I have no words, man," he told News 6. "My brain is still scrambled from the news."
The NCAA also released a statement saying that De La Haye "decided he did not want to separate his athletically-related videos from non-athletic ones he could monetize." Furthermore, the association said it is not against the rules for athletes to produce or profit from YouTube videos.
"Those are rules that I wasn't too comfortable with," he said.
The videos on De La Haye's YouTube channel showcase his life as a student-athlete with titles such as "What it's like to be a college football player" and "How I practice my kicking."
"I want to be wealthy one day," he said. "I think my videos can take me there. I love doing it. I can spend 24 hours on the computer and 24 hours behind a camera."
Because he's out of a scholarship, he started a GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/g3fyuu-college-tuition) on Monday night, where he was originally seeking $50,000 but later revised it to $10,000.
In one of his most recent videos, uploaded Monday morning, De La Haye claims that a woman he met through Instagram wanted to come home with him and when he said no, she sat on the hood of his car to prevent him from leaving.
"I sat there honking the horn, revving my engine, doing anything I could to get this girl off my car but none of it was working. This girl really had her mind set on coming home with me," De La Haye said in his "Crazy groupie broke her leg chasing my car" video.
He refers to the woman as "drunk" and "bipolar."
In the video, he claims the woman held onto his car as he tried to drive off. Eventually, he said she let go.
"After hours and hours of fighting, I finally lost that (expletive)," De La Haye said in the video, which has more than 12,000 views.
De La Haye claims the woman texted him repeatedly and said she would tell people he raped her. The next morning, he said she sent him Snapchat messages showing her broken leg and her in an ambulance.
A video posted in June details De La Haye's NCAA predicament, but since the waiver was announced Monday afternoon he's only referenced the decision through Twitter.
"All I wanted was to keep inspiring and motivating others through my content. Didn't know it would cost me my education," De La Haye tweeted.
