University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson asked Twitter to help him help hurricane victims and the result has been amazing. Sampson has received more than what he asked for in donations and all seems well. Right?
Eh. Not so much. The governing body of college sports has so much red tape strung along the landscape that it is actually preventing Houston from giving the city help.
“Some (letters) made you cry too,” Sampson said to KHOU. “We have a letter from a high school that said we only had four pairs of shoes we could send you. Come on now, you think about that.”
That's part of the heartbreaking stuff happening. NCAA rules, however, are standing in the way.
“They don’t want us sending all this nice gear to the top recruit in Houston,” said Lauren Dubois, senior associate athletics director for UH. “But, obviously that is not our intention at all.”
Dubois went on to say the program risks punishment if they give anything to potential recruits, their parents or youth leagues. Think about that for a second. In a time of crisis, the University of Houston has to operate giving out relief with great caution because it might get in trouble.
Houston has since tried like hell to get the donations to people who can use it. It first offered everything to the Red Cross, Star of Hope and Hurricane Harvey relief.
Now the university is asking for other charities to step in, take the donations, and give them out as they see fit.
Sampson just wishes altruism wasn't being marred by iffy rules.
“When you do something out of the goodness of your heart, when you have so many people around you helping, it’s not hard,” he said.
The school has asked the NCAA for a legislative relief waiver, which would relax the rules so Sampson can give donations away faster. The NCAA has yet to make a decision.
In a time of relief … the NCAA is NOT making a quick decision. Honestly, shame on them.
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