A college football player had his scholarship yanked while he was away from the team, grieving for his deceased mother.
Victory Vaka, a senior defensive lineman for Western Kentucky who transferred to the Hilltoppers from Texas Southern, flew home to be with his family after his mother passed on April 2.
Just over a week before his mother’s funeral, Vaka received a summer workout plan from WKU’s strength and conditioning coach, as well as notice that he was expected back on campus in June.
However, before that happened, on May 26, Vaka’s position coach asked him where he was.
The very next day, WKU Chief of Staff Travis Taylor told Vaka and his agent that the team was ending their relationship.
That meant double trouble for Vaka: Not only was he no longer a scholarship athlete at WKU. But also, because the school processed his dismissal as a “failure to report,” a disciplinary measure, he was no longer eligible to transfer to another school, as he had planned to do.
As it stands, Vaka is one semester away from graduation with no way for him to transfer and use his final season of eligibility.
As CBS Sports explains:
It’s a little-discussed reality of college football’s ever-changing transfer environment.
The spring transfer portal is gone. Roster cuts aren’t. And depending on how a school classifies those departures, NCAA rules can leave athletes with no avenue to continue their careers.
Vaka’s agent, Jaykwon Jefferson, said multiple FBS schools would sign Vaka today if he were able to enter the portal. But because Western Kentucky designated him as a ‘failure to report’ and the NCAA denied his legislative relief waiver, he may be out of options.
Vaka says he understands the business side of the sport and the need to maintain order when it comes to the comings and goings of players. Still, he remains confused about why the program ended their relationship with him in a way that prevented him from transferring.
“It’s like inhumane what they did,” Vaka said. “When some of these coaches say they care, they really don’t.”