NCAA rules mean a UCF player's ineligible because of YouTube, and that's as dumb as it sounds

And nobody is better off for it.

UCF kicker Donald De La Haye has a YouTube channel. De La Haye has produced and starred in dozens of his own videos, some of which have garnered hundreds of thousands of views. De La Haye’s account is “monetized,” to use YouTube’s term, which means he makes advertising money when people watch them. Oddly, that’s become a problem.

The NCAA has ruled De La Haye ineligible because he makes money off of his YouTube account, UCF announced Monday. The NCAA’s problem, UCF says, wasn’t with De La Haye making money off YouTube videos in general. The school got an NCAA waiver that said the kicker “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.”

De La Haye decided not to accept those conditions. He’s now ineligible and no longer kicking footballs for UCF.

UCF ruled De La Haye ineligible, not the NCAA. (The headline atop this post initially didn’t reflect that.) It’s NCAA rules, though, that framed the issue to start.

The NCAA’s statement emphasizes that this isn’t about monetizing YouTube videos in the first place — just about monetizing sports-related ones.

The kicker’s response:

De La Haye, a rising junior from Port St. Lucie, Fla., had worked as a kickoff specialist for the Knights for the previous two seasons. The NCAA forced him to decide between making money off his name or continuing to kick off. De La Haye decided not to give up his monetized videos, so he’s not a college football player anymore.

College football still has its purity, or something.