NIL violations in High School

Building off of yesterday’s post, I wanted to see what types of violations Pennsylvania was seeing, if any, since implementing the new NIL rules for high school athletes.  Jerry put me in contact with Mark Byers, the COO of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association. He noted that the only violations they discovered had to do with players looking to sell items such as t-shirts, with photos or images of them playing in their school uniform.  In all but one case, it was the company using the photo/image without the student even knowing it was occurring.  The schools sent cease and desist letters to the individuals, and it was corrected quickly.

Mark also noted that if an athlete uses an agent, they must be registered with the State Athletics Commission (separate from PIAA). https://www.dos.pa.gov/OtherServices/State%20Athletics/Pages/Athlete-Agents.aspx

The schools are required to report NIL deals to the Commission and identify if a sports agent was used.  The PIAA handles eligibility of the student, but the Athletics Commission handles the eligibility of the agent to work in PA.  If they are not registered with the Commission, it could be up to a $75,000 fine.

When asked about NIL, Mark said that he “can confidently say that the sky has not fallen.  What is envisioned as abuses, have not occurred in the 18 months we have had it in place.”  I think this is very interesting as I believe the same can be said for NIL at the college level.  While th rollout has been chaotic and confusing and there have been some violations, overall students are benefiting from the system.  Schools may complain about the transfer portal and the role that NIL plays in motivating athletes to transfer to different schools.  However, as many athletes are permitted to enter the draft prior to the end of their college careers, the “problem” of maintaining  a rooster from year to year is nothing new for coaches and teams.