Syracuse, N.Y. – College athletes can now earn money from their Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), but nobody knows for sure what that means for high school athletes who currently operate under the umbrella of amateurism.
Robert Zayas, Executive Director of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, said the newness of the NCAA legislation (it went into effect July 1) has athletic administrators at the high school level scrambling to make sense of what it might mean for its athletes.
For now, he said, high school athletes in New York need to abide by the same amateurism rules that currently govern them.
They cannot, Zayas said, monetize their athletic fame.
“I think the best way to characterize what I’m doing now as the executive director,” he said in a Friday phone conversation, “is just monitoring and examining how things are developing at the collegiate level and seeing if there’s any impact at the high school level. I do think we examine our rule. Our rule says you cannot capitalize on your athletic fame. That’s the rule as it stands right now that we’ve explained to athletic directors in the past and will continue to reiterate to them.”
Karissa L. Niehoff, the executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations noted on the organization’s website that “Current high school student-athletes CANNOT earn money as a result of their connection to their high school team.” (Emphasis hers.)
She was particularly confused by a Q and A on the NCAA website, which offered this assessment of how NIL will affect high school athletes who might one day play in college:
“Prospective student-athletes may engage in the same types of NIL opportunities available to current student-athletes under the interim NIL policy without impacting their NCAA eligibility. NIL opportunities may not be used as a recruiting inducement or as a substitute for pay-for-play.”
The NCAA went on to say high school athletes should consider the laws in their states and “the rules of any relevant amateur governing bodies.”
“This is disturbing and contradictory information,” Niehoff wrote. “Although this would not impact a current student’s NCAA eligibility, the athlete would be ineligible through his or her own state high school association.”
Zayas said he frequently has conversations with athletic directors across the state to explain New York’s amateurism rule. He likes to use this example: If the best golfer on his/her high school team is offered a country club membership, he/she cannot accept that membership unless every other player on the team is offered the same deal.
Thus far, in the infant stage of NIL, the college athletes reaping the biggest financial rewards tend to be those with large social media followers. Zayas wonders about the lack of clarity between who is considered a social media influencer and who is considered a star athlete.
“Those are all things that we as high school administrators need to make sure that we fully understand,” Zayas said. “With it being rolled out as quickly as it was, there’s a lot of questions. That’s why I think we need to make sure we take a very cautious approach to this and make sure we’re analyzing it, examining it and doing the best for our student-athletes that we work on behalf of.”
Zayas said he will meet with the NYSPHSAA governing board later this month to wrap up 2020-21 and look ahead to 2021-22. NIL, he said will be one of the “many topics” on the table at that meeting. In August, the NYSPHSAA will hold eligibility workshops for its athletic directors.
Zayas said he worries about the intersection of amateur high school sports and NIL. and is concerned about changing the dynamics of what high school sports were meant to be: A way to have competitive fun with schoolmates.
Unlike major college sports, with their big-money TV contracts and their six-figure coaching contracts, nobody is getting rich off high school sports. Coaches, he said, generally receive small stipends to coach high school teams.
“So I think there is a clear difference between what his happening at the collegiate level and what is happening at the high school level,” he said. “However, I’m already getting questions and I’m already hearing high schools being discussed in the realm of NIL. So I think if we’re going to do our due diligence and benefit the membership, we need to discuss those topics now.”
Zayas said some rules on the NYSPHSAA books were created before the dawn of the internet. He and his governing body, he said, are “constantly” reexamining those rules and trying to put them in current-day context.
Alicia Jessop, an associate law professor at Pepperdine who specializes in sports law, believes NIL is coming for high school athletes. Conversations, she said, will need to occur to sort out what is and isn’t allowed.
“The door has been open in college sports,” Jessop said. “Now, the question is, what are the high school athletic federations going to do because presently high school athletes are supposed to be amateurs. Are they going to consider enforcing that standard? I think for the time being, that will not be a focus. But in the commercial, capital world we live in and given the social media presence of high school athletes, it’s only a matter of time before a corporation wants to sponsor them.”
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