NC legalizes NIL for high school

Last week, a Wake County judge ordered the State Board of Education to legalize Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) for North Carolina high school athletes. That means that student-athletes may now use their notoriety to earn money, something that has never been seen before at the high school level.

It is a fairly new concept for all athletes who haven’t turned professional yet — until three years ago, it was illegal for college athletes to accept money. Many people, including Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, were punished for doing so. It’s often seen as a gray area, as many people view this as taking away their amateur status. Regardless, it’s here, and it’s here to stay, or so it seems.

The rules for NIL for N.C. high school athletes is a bit more restrictive than in college, undoubtedly designed to protect the younger athletes, many of whom are under 18.

“I just think the door has been opened,” acknowledged John Holt, Lakewood High’s head footballl coach. “For years, folks in every town, city, and place — they want to advertise their business. Car businesses want to sell cars. This is an avenue for the most famous person in the area to do that for them.”

Holt previously coached college football at Georgia State before taking the job at Lakewood, meaning he has had experience with NIL deals at the collegiate level.

The restrictions for the student-athletes include how they can sign their deals, what those deals can include, how to execute those deals, and what products they can and cannot promote. The restrictions go a step further and try to deter recruitment.

Any athlete that falls under the NCHSAA — the governing body for public high school athletics — is eligible for an NIL deal. One of the biggest restrictions is not allowing the deal to be tied to an individual’s performance or participation, meaning they cannot have a contract that holds out compensation due to meeting certain parameters.

The student-athletes also cannot wearing branding from a third-party company they have a deal with, unless it is part of the school’s uniform for their sport. This could be a gray area, as many athletes already wear third-party accessories like arm bands and the like.

They also cannot make reference to their school, school district, conference, or NCHSAA. They also cannot use the intellectual properties of any of them, like their names, mascots, or logos, and they cannot appear in uniform when doing anything related to the NIL deal.

Arguably the biggest restriction, though, is about the recruitment of players. College teams have garnered criticism for collecting large NIL pools to help with their recruitment, like Ohio State’s $20 million team. In the state ruling, however, NIL pools are outlawed and schools may not use lucrative NIL deals to recruit players to their teams.

Hobbton’s head football coach, Joe Salas, doesn’t see it working out this way, though. “I don’t think this makes an immediate impact, but I think people are going to figure out how to use it to recruit,” he said in an interview. “I’m happy that it’s started, but it could change. I’m not against anyone making money for their abilities, but it will turn into a recruiting tool.”

Salas has also spent time coaching collegiate football, but long before the NIL deal came about. He was a member of the coaching staff at Valdosta State in the early ’90s.

“Two things have drastically changed college football, as I’ve heard from people that I’m still friends with [that coach college football]: NIL and the early-signing period,” he continued. “It goes both ways — we always hear about kids that benefit [form NIL deals], but there are kids that get cut loose because of it. That’s kind of the hidden part of the transfer portal and NIL — people get cut to make room for others.”

As part of the stipulation about not having NIL pools or using it to recruit players, coaches may not act as an agent and negotiate deals on behalf of the athlete.

Clinton’s Johnny Boykin, who has a son playing for N.C. State, had his team’s media day focused on NIL this past summer. “We just wanted to give knowledge about what’s available to our kids,” he said this week, regarding that media day. “Kids today are starting businesses earlier and earlier. When I was in high school, I didn’t think of things like that.”

He continued, talking about real examples of where this can be beneficial for student-athletes. “This is more about imagine and likeness, [social media] followers, and less about pay-to-play. It’s a low-cost way for businesses to get advertising. On the other end, it gives the student-athlete the ability to grow this into something else down the line.”

Since this is a new concept for North Carolinian high school student-athletes, changes may be coming sooner rather than later.