WKU’s Victory Vaka lost scholarship after mother’s death. NCAA may end his career

Two months after his mom died unexpectedly and three weeks after he laid her to rest, Victory Vaka received a call from Western Kentucky: The Hilltoppers were canceling his scholarship. 

“I was shocked,” Vaka told CBS Sports. 

Vaka, a senior defensive line transfer from Texas Southern, flew home to grieve after his mom, Sarah Mataele, passed on April 2. He always planned to return to Western Kentucky for the 2026 season. Nine days ahead of his mom’s funeral, Vaka received a call from an assistant strength coach. Vaka said that the coach provided a summer workout plan and told Vaka he was expected back in June.

Then came May 26 and a question from his position coach: Where are you?

The next day, WKU chief of staff Travis Taylor informed Vaka and his agent that the Hilltoppers were moving on.

Often, when a player has his aid canceled, he can enter the transfer portal via the NCAA’s aid reduction or cancellation exemption. That was Vaka’s plan. However, Western Kentucky processed Vaka as a “failure to report.” A disciplinary dismissal prevents that exception from being used, leaving him one semester away from graduation with no way for him to transfer and use his final season of eligibility.

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.

CBS Sports sent Western Kentucky a list of questions and a request to interview head coach Tyson Helton and athletic director Todd Stewart on Friday. The school declined to comment and made neither Helton nor Stewart available.

The NCAA also declined to comment on a specific waiver request.

Vaka understands college football is a business. He understands Western Kentucky needs to manage its roster. But he couldn’t understand why losing his roster spot also meant losing the chance to transfer elsewhere.

“It’s like inhumane what they did,” Vaka said. “When some of these coaches say they care, they really don’t.”

Why can’t this work for both sides?

Vaka is a journeyman in college football terms.

The 6-foot-3, 335-pound defensive tackle played for four schools before picking Western Kentucky for what he expected to be his final college season. The first month or two went well. He did offseason workouts. He participated in spring practice.

In an exchange between Jefferson and Western Kentucky general manager Zachary Kramme on May 5 that CBS saw a copy of, Kramme referred to Vaka’s “time away in May,” suggesting the staff expected Vaka to be away through at least part of the month.

“Love Victory, such a good dude,” Kramme said. “Had me hurting for him when all that was going down. He definitely handled it way better than I would have lol. But you know, weight is his biggest issue right now. I think he has a role, but he’s got to keep changing his body and using his time away in May to stay on track with that.”

Kramme initiated that text by telling Jefferson the Hilltoppers were looking for a defensive tackle in the portal. Looking back, Jefferson suspects Western Kentucky was already trying to replace Vaka.

Western Kentucky flew Vaka home when his mom died in early April. After returning to Bowling Green later in April, he met with his professors about finishing the semester remotely — he’d end the semester with a 3.33 GPA — and sat down with Helton.

Vaka said Helton didn’t give him a specific timeline to return. Helton did tell Vaka he’d support him if he wished to finish his career elsewhere, adding that he’d help Vaka get to another school closer to home if he wished to transfer.

“I didn’t want to leave Western Kentucky, but I had to be back at home,” Vaka said. “(Helton) asked me, ‘If you don’t come back out here, I’m not going to blame you.’ That kind of caught me off guard.

“I got that feeling they wouldn’t be mad if I didn’t come back.”

Vaka didn’t have any communication with Western Kentucky’s staff again until May 1, when the assistant strength coach told him the staff didn’t expect him back until June.

“In my mind, they were giving me the whole month of May off,” Vaka said. “I think that’s where all this went sideways. The lack of communication from both parties.”

Vaka’s family held the funeral nine days later on May 9.

He did not hear from the Western Kentucky staff again until Memorial Day. One day later, he was removed from the DT room group chat — he wasn’t an active participant while away from school — and was off the team.

At that point, Jefferson attempted to step in.

He had a conversation with Taylor on May 27, for which CBS Sports was provided a transcript. Taylor pointed out that Western Kentucky flew Vaka home after his mom’s death and then flew Vaka back to Bowling Green because the program was concerned about him.

He also emphasized that Vaka did not initiate any contact with the staff. Vaka said he could have communicated better.

In providing a reasoning for Western Kentucky moving on, Taylor pointed out Vaka had been away from the team for two months of the offseason and wouldn’t be in a position to play. He told Jefferson that Vaka was a “good kid” and there was “no ill will,” but called the sport a “business.”

“We pay them all this money and tell them, ‘All right, now we expect you to be an adult and communicate and do all the things that adults do,” Taylor said.

Taylor informed Jefferson that he was working on Vaka’s non-renewal paperwork and would ask compliance about potentially entering Vaka in the portal.  

After days without hearing back from Western Kentucky, Jefferson contacted both the NCAA and WKU’s compliance office. The NCAA told Jefferson players whose aid is canceled generally qualify for the exemption. Western Kentucky told him Vaka’s “failure to report” designation made him ineligible to enter the portal.

“I tried to plead with the compliance guy,” Jefferson said. “Why can’t this work for both sides?”

Afterward, Jefferson did not hear from Western Kentucky compliance for about two weeks despite daily calls and emails. The Hilltoppers eventually suggested a legislative relief waiver, but the NCAA denied Vaka’s request.

When asked how Vaka could strengthen his appeal, Western Kentucky Senior Associate AD for Compliance and Academic Affairs, Chandler Derieux, told Vaka:

“Please submit a detailed statement explaining why the student athlete believes the staff’s decision should be modified or overturned.”

In other words, Vaka had to prove why the Western Kentucky football staff’s decision to mark him as a failure to report should be overturned. He essentially had to out-argue the school submitting the waiver request on his behalf.

The NCAA denied that appeal, too.

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A victim of the system

NCAA financial aid rules allow schools to cancel scholarships only under limited exceptions. According to CCHA Law partner Paia LaPalombara, who previously served at Ohio State as Assistant AD of Compliance, Vaka could conceivably have fit two of them:

• Engaging in serious misconduct (not reporting)
• Voluntarily withdrawing from the sport

The puzzling aspect is that Western Kentucky eventually supported Vaka in seeking a legislative relief waiver.

“It’s very unique,” LaPalombra said. “The institution is filing a waiver essentially against itself. So, they’re filing a waiver in support of a student athlete that is going against something that they ultimately said that they’re not going to do — (enter him into the portal).”

LaPalombra did caution that she’s not familiar with every detail of the case, but it seems to be a situation in which NCAA rules put a player in a difficult position.

Not only does a player need a school’s support to submit a waiver. But in working with Western Kentucky, the Hilltoppers are incentivized to argue in their own interests. 

Looking back on the situation, Jefferson said he believes Western Kentucky always planned to move on from Vaka and used his time away from the program as an excuse to do so.

Vaka wasn’t a high-profile transfer — he played 171 snaps in 2025, and WKU signed him for $2,000 a month, per Jefferson — and his text with the GM in May indicated the Hilltoppers were worried about Vaka maintaining his weight.

“To me it felt premeditated,” Jefferson said. “Why did they wait a whole month to check on him? It’s your duty as a staff to take care of this kid. The head coach said he was going to call him. … Victory never got that call.”

NCAA rules prohibit schools from canceling aid for athletic performance. That possibility is why a 30-day portal window for athletes who lose their scholarships was put in place.

That creates a dilemma. If a school wishes to move on from a player and avoid an NCAA violation, it must process that player as having violated one of the six exceptions. So, in a case like Vaka’s, even if the school wanted to allow him to enter the portal, it couldn’t.

“This puts institutions (between) a rock and a hard place — they may want to support a (student-athlete) getting the additional 30-day window, but doing so also means that they’re admitting to their own Level III violation by impermissibly removing the (student-athlete’s) aid,” LaPalombara said via text.

“WKU may have actually put forward a good-faith waiver request to the NCAA to allow the (student-athlete) to enter the portal, as they don’t want the (student-athlete) to stay at WKU but also can’t (or don’t want to) admit to a violation that they impermissibly removed the SA’s aid.”

Vaka’s case illustrates one of the gaps in the NCAA’s current system.

Western Kentucky moved on from him months after the transfer portal closed. By classifying his departure as a disciplinary matter, the school prevented him from using the NCAA’s aid-cancellation exception.

Those situations could become more common when the NCAA’s age-based eligibility comes into effect. Under that new system, athletes will be given five years of eligibility. No medical waivers or relief waivers will be permitted.

That system will likely work well for most athletes. But, in gray-area circumstances like Vaka’s, it could result in athletes being left behind.

“We’re going to see this significantly with the new age-based eligibility model,” LaPalombra said.

‘You’re effectively ending his career’

Vaka described the last few months as devastating. He cried almost every day. There are times he doesn’t even realize he’s crying.

“That’s just how it’s been,” Vaka said. “It’s been very exhausting mentally. Being back here around my siblings has been somewhat helping, but every day I wake up and can’t believe my mom is gone.”

Vaka still wants to play football. He wants to get his degree. But those futures are very much in jeopardy.

The NCAA never called to speak with Vaka during his appeal process. Western Kentucky never explained to Jefferson why it couldn’t release Vaka in a way that allowed him to enter the portal.

For now, Vaka is stuck in a system that doesn’t seem to have an answer for him.

The elimination of the spring portal window was intended to create roster certainty for schools, but Vaka’s situation illustrates that the rules can leave players in limbo. Depending on how a team categorizes a player’s aid cancellation outside the transfer window, a player can be left with no clear path to play the following season.

“I hope we can come to a resolution,” Jefferson said. “You’re effectively ending his career.”