Well, that didn't take long.
Little more than a year after the NCAA changed its rules on NIL
opportunities for collegiate athletes, state legislatures and state
high school athletic associations (at least in some
states) have paved the way for high school students looking to
capitalize on their names, images, and likenesses. These
developments expand the field of NIL-eligible students
exponentially, along with all the questions, uncertainties, and
legal gray areas that follow.
To be clear, most states still limit, if not prohibit, high
school students from profiting from their NIL rights. However, as
with collegiate NIL, we expect the list to grow until all fifty
states and DC have covered the topic, just as Oregon is about to do. But even in those
states which do purport to allow NIL agreements, the policies and
procedures might be far from clear. For example, North Dakota's
governing high school athletic association's amateurism bylaws provide that a
