This summer, many people got (justifiably) pissed off about the way the NCAA handled the case of Donald De La Haye, a kicker for UCF that was profiting off of ads placed on his wildly successful YouTube channel. De La Haye eventually left the school after he didn’t agree to the waiver that UCF and the NCAA came to an agreement on.
Now, the NCAA is at it again. Texas A&M freshman track & field athlete Ryan Trahan owns a water bottle company, and has 14,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. On Wednesday, he posted a video on his channel claiming that the NCAA is forcing him to apply for a waiver in order to continue to operate his business, while also not referencing either his business or his athletic career at Texas A&M.
Trahan stated his case in the video, posted above.
“I don’t understand how I’m allowed to have a job at McDonald’s or something while being a student-athlete,” Trahan said in his latest video post. “But I can’t have a company that I’m passionate about, that I’ve been working on for over a year now and keep my identity. Like, how is that right in any way?”
The NCAA also claimed that they had not received a waiver from A&M and that student-athletes could run businesses as long as the business had nothing to do with their athletics reputation.
The NCAA has not received a formal waiver request from Texas A&M regarding Ryan Trahan, but we are working together on the issue.
— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) September 21, 2017
Student-athletes can own and run their own business without violating NCAA rules if it’s not based on their athletics reputation or ability.
— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) September 21, 2017
You’d think the NCAA would be thrilled that one of its athletes is “going pro in something other than sports”. But apparently, that’s not the case.
And Neptune Bottle, the water bottle company in question, also donates a share of its proceeds to charity!
That’s where we, and you, come in. We donate a portion of our proceeds to the Plastic Oceans Foundation, who is raising awareness around the world and actively physically combating this plastic epidemic.
Sometimes, common sense needs to prevail over the letter of the law. This is one of those situations.
I don’t see what’s wrong, just sign the waiver and move on, right?
Common sense and the NCAA? Not gonna happen. 🙂