Chapel Hill, North Carolina — North Carolina State, Wednesday, became the 28th association in the nation to pass a policy allowing high school athletes to redeem their name, image, and likeness.
The NC High School Athletic Association board of directors voted to approve a name, image, and likeness policy for the more than 180,000 student-athletes at NCHSAA member schools. This includes traditional public schools, a dozen charter schools, and four non-boarding parish schools.
Athletes at NCHSAA member schools can begin benefiting from their name, image, and likeness on July 1.
However, before athletes can strike a deal with a company, they must undergo a course on NIL, put together by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Parents, coaches, athletic directors and managers will also be required to take the NFHS course.
Under the new policy, student-athletes are allowed to monetize their names, images, and likenesses through appearances, athlete-owned brands and signatures, camps, clinics, group licensing, in-kind deals, instructions, non-fungible tokens, product endorsements, promotional activities, and social media.
However, schools and coaches will not be allowed to facilitate nil deals. They are not permitted to use the NIL to recruit athletes or encourage enrollment, and school staff and coaches cannot act as a student’s agent or marketing representative.
There are restrictions on the type of products that student athletes can participate in as well. NCHSAA will prohibit student-athletes from entering into NIL deals with products about adult entertainment, alcohol, cannabis, controlled substances, firearms and ammunition, gambling, and prescription drugs, as well as tobacco, vaping, and other nicotine-related products. Athletes cannot be affiliated with a specific school, conference, school district, NCHSAA, or NFHS through an NIL deal.
NCHSAA will require student-athletes to report all NIL deals to their school. The school will be required to maintain a record of those NIL deals with the NCHSAA.
Of the 27 state associations that have approved the NIL for high school athletes, only Tennessee borders North Carolina. However, the Virginia High School League executive committee voted 31-0 in January to introduce a proposal allowing NIL for high school athletes and a final vote on the proposal is scheduled for Wednesday.
The NIL became legal for collegiate athletes in July 2021 after the NCAA changed its amateur rules. At the time, the NFHS said it wouldn’t change anything for high school athletes, but less than two years later, more than half of the state federations chose to let high school athletes benefit from their name, image, and likeness.