A Pyrrhic Undefeated Season

My alma mater, the University of Central Florida, had an undefeated regular season, won its conference championship in double overtime, and sits at #12 in the CFP rankings. (No love for a non-P5 team; bah-humbug!) Amidst all of the celebrating, however, our head coach got plucked away by Nebraska, so a lot of alumni are lamenting that loss, while others are cursing him because of the unfortunate timing of the news of his departure dropping while we were still in playing Memphis.

But there's a far more shocking story to come out of UCF than the loss of our head coach and his staff. Donald De La Haye lost his football scholarship because the NCAA forced him into a take-it-or-leave-it situation: continue making YouTube videos that have generated some money for him, or play football. The option to do both was not on the table because it threatened the cartel the NCAA has over the monetization of its slaves... er, student athletes.

So naturally, I posted that article to the Facebook page that discusses all things UCF athletics. And although there was some mild support for my post or sympathy for the player, most of the reactions fell in the range of "don't bring down our high" to "he traded his free speech for a scholarship"; as if a constitutionally protected freedom could be bartered in such a way. I believe that the university has not only the moral obligation to reinstate De La Haye's scholarship and stand up for him against the NCAA, but also a constitutional duty to do so as a public university. In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), the Supreme Court famously declared that students do not shed their right to freedom of speech simply because they have entered the schoolhouse doors. 

Contract law contains the doctrine of "unconscionability." This doctrine allows courts to render a contract unenforceable because the terms of the contract so overwhelmingly favor one party over the other that it shocks the conscience. One of the key factors of unconscionability is whether one party had vastly superior bargaining position. UCF, acting as a proxy for the the NCAA's regulations, stood atop a mountain of bargaining power compared to De La Haye, a kid born in Costa Rica who was sending some of the revenue from his YouTube channel to help family there. The NCAA's restrictions on monetizing videos based on an athlete's "reputation, prestige, or ability" forced De La Haye to sign away his right to express himself in his role as a football player when he accepted a scholarship to play for UCF. Forcing De La Haye to sign away a constitutionally-protected right so he could receive a monetary stipend and tuition--things he earned by his athletic prowess--strikes me as a grossly unequal exchange. Meanwhile, UCF and the NCAA continue to make money off the blood, sweat, and backs of men and women in athletic programs around the country.

As it turns out, De La Haye decided to leave college football behind him and continue his endeavors with his YouTube channel, Deestroying. But it never should have come to him being forced to choose one over the other. Stories like his are the reason my university will never receive a dime from me. True story: I quit my Chicago-area alumni chapter board this past summer because the school forced me to contribute financially despite the hours I volunteered to promote its brand and image. And I told them that I have serious misgivings about donating money to a public university that does not value free speech.

Not a dime. The only financial gift I've ever made to UCF, which the alumni association found "unacceptable." 

UCF's 1400 acre campus has only nine designated "Free Assembly Areas" that people must meet in if they want to hold political rallies or events (University Regulations, UCF-4.2093(12)). The university has also codified into its campus regulations the constitutionally suspect "fighting words" doctrine (UCF-4.2093(6)(f)) as well as the heckler's veto (4.2093(8-9)). The former has been drastically limited by Supreme Court cases National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977) and Snyder v. Phelps (2011), to the point the doctrine is almost meaningless. (Consider, for a moment, that the very statements Walter Chaplinsky yelled at his arresting police officer in the "fighting words" case were "You are . . . a damned Fascist," something we hear regularly these days.) And the heckler's veto has no place on a public university campus that purports to value integrity, scholarship, and community.

Overall, reading De La Haye's story yesterday amidst the conference championship left a sour taste in my mouth. Sure, the school will get some recognition for the victories its football team had this season. But in putting its fealty to the almighty NCAA above the rights of its students, I can't help but feel that this 12-0 season deserves an asterisk next to it.