Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign responded to angry Kentucky fans over accidentally including footage of Duke basketball winning the 2010 NCAA championship by replacing the video with Kentucky forward Julius Randle.
Great move, except that it is in violation of NCAA rules.
The NCAA forbids schools and organizations from using players’ images for commercial purposes. The University of Kentucky never violated this rule since they had no knowledge of the McConnell campaign using Randle’s likeness. However, once they found out, they had to write McConnell a cease-and-desist letter, WFPL reports.
Campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore said in a statement, “The video was taken down immediately after questions were raised. Since that time, we have received correspondence from the University of Kentucky, we have spoken with them, and the matter has been resolved. To be clear, neither the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville nor any student-athlete was aware of any image used in this video, and actions have been taken with the vendor to ensure this never happens again.”
The contention began when McConnell’s campaign released an ad showing the Duke Blue Devils celebrating a victory, instead of the Wildcats.