NCAA reverses course and allows Emily Scheck to receive GoFundMe donations and retain NCAA eligibility

The NCAA initially told Emily Scheck, an openly-lesbian cross-country runner at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, that she could either forfeit her eligibility and give up her ability to compete as a collegiate cross-country runner or return donations that she receive via GoFundMe that are, because her parents disowned her because of her sexual orientation, necessary for her to have a good standard of living.

Here is how ThinkProgress initially reported about the NCAA's original decision regarding Scheck (proofreading mine):

Emily Scheck, a cross-country runner at Canisius College in upstate New York, had to deal with this worst-case scenario when her parents discovered, through social media, that she was dating a woman: She was told to either return home so she could receive dehumanizing, harmful, and ineffective conversion therapy, or stay at school and be cut out of their lives forever, according to a report by Outsports.

(Scheck) did not want to endure conversion therapy, so her parents quickly disowned her. They cut off all financial support, left her with a huge credit card bill, canceled insurance on her car, and left her with no way to pay for tuition, books, and a meal plan at school (She’s only on a partial athletic scholarship). It was a nightmare.

So, (Scheck’s) friends decided to step up. Eight days ago, her friend Grace Hausladen set up a GoFundMe to help her out. So far, it has raised over $25,000.

But there’s a catch. According to Outsports, an NCAA compliance officer at Canisius College reached out and told her she had two options: “Return every penny and maintain her NCAA eligibility, or keep the money and leave the cross-country team.”

The article from Outsports cited by ThinkProgress can be found here.

The NCAA, in an overzealous and unnecessary move that they initially saw designed to protect the amateur status of college sports, initially forced an openly-lesbian woman who was disowned by her parents because of her sexual orientation to choose between her sport and a reasonable standard of living. While I don't support making collegiate sports in this country professional or semi-professional, Emily Scheck was not taking donations because she's a cross-country runner, but because she couldn't maintain a reasonable standard of living without the donations. After the NCAA come under heavy criticism for its initial decision regarding Scheck's eligibility, the NCAA reversed course and are now allowing Scheck to receive donations via GoFundMe and retain her amateur student-athlete status and NCAA eligibility, and the statement from Canisius noted that "NCAA rules allow a school to assist a student-athlete with a fundraiser after a significant life event occurs.".

I believe that the NCAA's decision to allow Emily Scheck to receive donations via GoFundMe and retain her NCAA eligibility was the correct interpretation of NCAA rules. Emily is an awesome person, no matter who she loves!