NC private high school athletes to profit from NIL starting this fall
North Carolina private high school student-athletes will be able to benefit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) rights beginning this fall.
The Observer broke the story earlier this week.
On Friday, the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association officially announced that it was joining more than 30 high school athletic associations nationwide that have approved an NIL policy.
Under the new rules, NCISAA athletes at private schools “may retain athletic eligibility under NCISAA regulations and engage in NIL activities for financial gain, provided the student’s NIL activities and participation in interscholastic athletics remain separate.”
The policy will go into effect for the 2024-25 school year.
“I applaud our leadership and Association for engaging in conversations about policies affecting our student-athletes,“ NCISAA Executive Director Homar Ramirez said in a release. “After careful consideration it was decided to adopt an NIL policy after watching the impact that NIL has had in college athletics. This policy provides the necessary protection for our student-athletes, families, and our member schools. We recognize that the sports world is changing and will continue to assess best practices for our schools.”
Specific aspects of the NCISAA’s policy include:
▪ Student-athletes must keep their NIL activities and participation in interscholastic athletics separate.
▪ No collectives.
▪ Member schools cannot offer, secure or participate in NIL deals.
▪ Limited permissible activities.
▪ All NIL deals must be reported to and approved by the NCISAA State Office.
The rules are similar to a policy that the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s Board of Directors approved for member schools in May 2023. Lawmakers soon overruled the change, however, and there is currently no NIL policy for public school athletes and it is not legal for public school athletes to make money off NIL.
According to the NCHSAA’s NIL committee, the average NIL deal for high school athletes in other states ranged between $60 and $120 last year.
The new private school policy could lead to big changes in the state’s sports landscape, including star athletes transferring to try to reap the benefits.
In 2021, Texas high school star Quinn Ewers skipped his senior season to enroll at Ohio State because Texas state law doesn’t allow any prospective student-athlete to be compensated for NIL before enrolling in college. After he enrolled at Ohio State, CBS Sports reported that Ewers signed a seven-figure NIL deal.
When she was in high school, basketball phenom Jada Williams moved from Missouri, where NIL deals were prohibited, to California, where they are allowed. She played high school in San Diego and was reportedly earning six figures from NIL deals. Williams is now a freshman at Arizona.
Last summer, Ramirez said the private school association was working on a policy. He said then that he thought the association could have something in place before the 2023-24 school year.
“It’s the evolution of sports,” Ramirez said last spring. “We’re watching what’s happening in the college space and we know that there’s a trickle down to the high school space. Those are us who long for amateur sports, the way it was in the ‘80s and ‘90s, we’re out of touch. There are so many opportunities now for young people, especially with social media. We need to learn from what the college space did and get our heads around it, build some fences around our student-athletes and schools and work to keep as equitable an experience for young people as possible.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2024 at 6:30 AM.
