On Saturday, the University of Houston was granted a special waiver to distribute the donated items it collected to people impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
ESPN.com reports that the school has collected more than 100,000 t-shirts and tens of thousands of pairs of shoes after Houston basketball coach Kelvin Sampson tweeted an appeal in the wake of the storm.
#HoustonStrong #ForTheCity #GoCoogs pic.twitter.com/aAlkkcNqnE
— Coach Kelvin Sampson (@CoachSampsonUH) August 28, 2017
Schools and sports programs from all 50 states joined in to contribute items to the cause. However, distribution of the collected donations was stalled at first by NCAA rules that prohibit programs from providing gear or gifts to potential recruits, their families or youth leagues.
“They don’t want us sending all this nice gear to the top recruit in Houston,” Lauren Dubois, senior associate athletics director at the University of Houston, told KHOU. “But, obviously that is not our intention at all.”
However, the NCAA paved the way for Houston to distribute the donations without fear of punishment.
In a tweet on Saturday, the NCAA said that it told the American Athletic Conference that Houston would be allowed to give donations to anybody in need.
We encouraged schools to do what's best to help hurricane survivors. As we told AAC Thursday, Houston can give donations to anyone in need.
— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) September 9, 2017
NCAA executive vice president of regulatory affairs Oliver Luck got in touch with Houston’s athletics director Hunter Yurachek via text over the weekend, telling him that the body had granted a special waiver.
“The NCAA was very quick in getting us this waiver,” Yuracheck told ESPN. “There’s a rule in place that makes sense, other than when you have 100,000 t-shirts coming in for hurricane victims. The NCAA has granted us a waiver, and it’s full steam ahead.”
