On Wednesday, both North Carolina and Virginia finalized legislation allowing high school athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness.
This makes them the 27th and 28th states, plus Washington D.C., to adopt NIL legislation for high school athletes.
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“As we have seen previously, once one state high school athletic association passes a rule permitting its athletes to profit off their NIL, other neighboring states follow,” Sports law professor and NIL attorney Dan Greene told The NIL Deal. “With today’s announcements from Virginia and North Carolina, we are finally seeing some long-awaited movement from high school athletic associations in the South, who now join Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Louisiana as states in the South that permit NIL at the high school level via their respective HSAAs.”
There are certain guidelines student-athletes must adhere to if they want to make money off NIL. For example, the Virginia High School League doesn’t permit student-athletes to profit from any activity that involves a school team, name, logo, or mascot.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association requires student-athletes, alongside parents, coaches, athletic directors and principals, to complete the National Federation of High Schools NIL course every year.
RELATED: Georgia HS Athletic Association hints at NIL policy change: ‘Should be prepared’ in near future
Even with these proposals being approved, lawmakers are still hesitant, and there’s potential scrutiny and potential bills on the horizon that could impact the NCHSAA’s ability to govern.
It will be interesting to see how other state governing bodies react to the news in the coming months.
“Pressure will now be on neighboring states like South Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida to follow suit, and I would not be shocked to see some, if not all, of those HSAAs amend their rules this year,” Greene told The NIL Deal. “Not only should everyone be permitted to capitalize on their right of publicity, but as of right now we haven’t seen the destruction of high school athletics in states that permit NIL at the high school level.”
