We should embrace the opportunity in NIL for high school sports in NC

By Nick Stevens, HighSchoolOT managing editor

You read the headline and now you probably fall into one of two groups — one group of people who are thinking, "Finally! Yes!" Or another group who is thinking, "Nick Stevens has officially lost his mind. If that happens, I'm out."

But hear me out first.

NIL — the ability for college athletes to make a profit off their name, image, and likeness — was legalized dramatically, suddenly, overnight about a year ago. Amateurism rules were in place one day and completely gone the next. It created a lot of angst about what it meant for the future of college sports, lots of questions were unanswered. It created doubt and uncertainty, things we humans don't like.

It also created the two groups of people that I mentioned in my first sentence — the ones who are radically for it, and the ones who think it's the worst thing that has ever happened to college sports.

We've learned a lot in the last year, and like most everything in life, there is good and there is bad. But one thing is not up for debate — college athletes have never had the ability to capitalize off their hard work, skills, social media audiences, and fame like they do today, and the sun has come up every single day since NIL became legal. You can decide if that's a good thing or not, but most athletes believe it can benefit them, and now they don't see it as a luxury, they see it as a right.

And that is why it is only a matter of time until it becomes reality for high school athletes. As far as the NCAA is concerned, amateurism is gone. The only thing holding amateurism together at the high school level are rules (and some laws) in individual states and strongly worded statements from the National Federation of State High School Associations, which doesn't have any actual enforcement ability. But the restrictions in states have started to evaporate — and it's happened a much faster pace and in a more diversified way than many probably expected a year ago.

In July 2021, the NFHS came out in a press conference and said the NIL rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court did not change high school rules.

Oh, but it did.

As of last month, less than a year after the Supreme Court case was decided and legalized NIL for college athletes, nine states opted to permit high school athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness. Some of the biggest states are on the list, like California and New York, but there are smaller states too, like Alaska, which ranks 48th in total number of high school athletes in the country. There are East Coast states that have implemented it, like New Jersey, and there are plains states that decided to allow NIL, like Kansas and Nebraska. Red states like Utah, and blue states like Colorado now allow NIL in high school athletics. Louisiana is the lone Gulf Coast state that has approved NIL for high school athletes.

You can be against it. You can think it will ruin high school sports. You can say it will make high school sports more about money and less about the game. And you may be right. But it's coming. And we have two options — embrace it and implement it in a responsible, fair, and controlled way, or wait for it to be forced upon us and have it turn into the wild west, which is what the NCAA did.

Personally, I don't think the NCAA is the model I want to follow for much.

This is where people make a mistake though. It doesn't have to the NCAA way or no way at all. Any time you box yourself into an either-or scenario, you're likely missing better solutions.

Let's talk about some of the benefits of doing this on our terms in North Carolina. By being proactive and not waiting to react, we can create responsible policies and transparency around NIL, and we can create education about financial responsibility for high school athletes, something that will serve them well for the rest of their life. And high school sports are supposed to teach life lessons, right?

The state — either the state government or the N.C. High School Athletic Association — could create a clearinghouse for NIL deals to provide transparency and accurate reporting. The NCHSAA could implement extremely harsh penalties for coaches or schools who violate rules by attempting to pay athletes to come play at their school, penalties like lifetime bans from coaching. There could be taxes on NIL payments from for-profit companies, similar to payroll taxes. Outside of possibly the most elite of the elite athletes, we're probably not talking about large sums of money.

A high school version of NIL does not have to be like the college version of NIL. The State Board of Education, which sets some of the eligibility requirements for participation, could have a separate set of requirements for athletes to be eligible to receive NIL payments. Athletes could be required to attend a financial literacy class, they could be required to maintain a certain GPA or meet attendance requirements. There are ways to preserve the importance of the education side of interscholastic athletics while allowing high school athletes to benefit from the hard work they put into their sports, something that often limits their ability to hold part-time jobs.

Allowing high school athletes in North Carolina to benefit from NIL will also help keep more kids involved in high school sports in our state, and participation is a growing concern for high school sports. As more and more states legalize NIL, you are going to see some of the top athletes transfer to schools in those states. Athletes don't know how long they have to play a sport, so they might as well take advantage of it while they can. It could also be a tool for high schools to reassert themselves in the ongoing tug of war with club sports. Sure, you might get more exposure in club sports, and club sports certainly have their place in the lives of athletes, but unless you're one of the top of the top players, there probably aren't many NIL opportunities for you in club sports. But if you're the star point guard at your high school in your small town, there are probably some local stores and restaurants who will hand you some cash to help promote their businesses.

There are people who will adamantly say that NIL has no place in high school sports. I think those people are in denial, trapped in an old period of sports — a period that is gone and is not coming back.

During an episode of "The T.J. Thorpe Show," Thorpe interviewed Cardinal Gibbons High School quarterback Connor Clark. He's a college prospect at quarterback, but during the pandemic he and his younger brother started a company from scratch to produce copper-infused face masks. They were in business for about a quarter, and they made so much money they are able to pay for their own tuition to Cardinal Gibbons, put money away for college for themselves and their younger sister, donate $25,000 to a local hospital, and more. That is (rightfully) celebrated. But if the neighborhood restaurant down the street wants to pay him $100 to post a photo of his favorite meal on Instagram, he'd be penalized and condemned, simply because it was related to his football ability.

We need to step back and as ourselves this question, "So what?" Why does it matter if a kid makes some money because they are good at a sport? What is the purpose behind that?

It was when I was editing that particular episode of "The T.J. Thorpe Show" when my view of NIL for high school athletes began to shift. Would we penalize a marching band member for making money at a gig in a band on a Saturday night? Of course not. Why should it be any different for high school athletes? What about the high school students who are interested in media and help us with "HighSchoolOT Live" on Friday nights? We pay them. That's not a problem. But if we wanted the No. 1 running back in the state to record a commercial for us, we couldn't pay him for that. Why?

We can pretend high school sports will never change, but they are changing. They have been changing for a long time. NIL is coming. It might be here next year, it might be here in 10 years, but it is coming. We can embrace it now and be on the front lines of change, giving ourselves a chance to shape the future of high school sports and help the students embrace NIL in a responsible way, or we can keep saying it isn't going to happen until it is finally forced upon us. Then we're stuck with whatever we've got.