Should North Carolina high school athletes be paid?

(WGHP) — Across the world of “amateur” sports, the subject of players being paid remains a controversial one.

What began as a debate at the collegiate level has now become a conversation for high school athletes.

In recent news, the mother of top recruit and Grimsley High School star quarterback Faizon Brandon is suing the North Carolina State Board of Education over its rules on endorsements , raising the question of whether or not high school athletes should be able to earn a profit.

How did we get here?

In recent years, “Name, Image, and Likeness” — commonly referred to as NIL — has become the primary method of player compensation as it allows for “amateurism” to still exist in some capacity.

Amateurism is “the practicing of an activity, especially a sport, on an unpaid rather than a professional basis,” according to the Oxford Languages definition.

In 2021, the bubble on player pay burst at the college level when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the NCAA’s restrictions on players profiting from NIL violated antitrust laws .

Under the NIL structure, athletes earn a profit from their image and brand as individuals rather than receiving compensation directly from the school they play for. This structure technically maintains the standard of “amateurism.”

However, this grey area is not without controversy among fans and coaches. Several college football coaches have complained publicly about NIL.

UNC’s head coach Mack Brown said earlier in August that the Tar Heels’ star running back Omarion Hampton was offered four times as much money as he currently makes in NIL to leave North Carolina.

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy went on the record about telling his players to “tell [their] agents to quit calling us and asking for more money. It’s non-negotiable now. Start again in Decemeber.”

According to the current NCAA bylaws , “an individual may receive compensation for the use of the individual’s name, image and likeness, which may be secured or compensated based, in whole or in part, on athletics skill or reputation. Name, image and likeness activities may not be used to compensate a student-athlete for athletics participation or achievement.”

While schools are allowed to “provide assistance and services” to players in finding NIL opportunities, they are not allowed to compensate them directly.

Despite the limit on direct compensation, the current system creates an environment that can favor larger schools, with larger alumni networks and thus better capabilities of providing more profitable NIL opportunities.

The current bylaws of the NCAA state that “name, image and likeness activities may not be used as an inducement for an individual to enroll or remain enrolled at a specific institution.” However, comments from coaches such as Gundy and Brown clearly indicate that there are some people in the industry who believe that NIL opportunities are being used as an incentive to sway commitments from athletes.

Where does North Carolina stand?

Currently, in North Carolina, athletes at public high schools effectively cannot remain eligible to play and receive NIL benefits.

The North Carolina State Board of Education put policy ATHL-008 into effect on July 1. Under this policy, no student-athlete at a public school will be allowed to enter an NIL agreement that features any of the following:

• Public appearances or commercials
• Autograph signings
• Athletic camps and clinics
• Sale of NFTs
• Product or service endorsements
• Promotional activities, including in-person events and social media advertisements

While the policy does not outright ban NIL, the prohibited activities encompass what most competitive NIL offers would entail.

Private schools are not beholden to the Board of Education’s ruling and are still free to use NIL with student-athletes.

This dichotomy between what private schools and public schools are beholden to came to the forefront when Reidsville High School star Kendre Harrison transferred from Reidsville High School to Providence Day School — a private high school in Charlotte.

Harrison — the 2023-24 MaxPreps Male National Athlete of the Year — is a top-ranked player in both basketball and football and helped lead Reidsville to state championships in both football and basketball last season.

For his part, Harrison told the Charlotte Observer that NIL was not a factor in his decision saying that he has “no NIL” and went to Providence Day “off the strength of me trying to get better.”

The bubble truly burst on Aug. 23 when the mother of Grimsley High School star quarterback Faizon Brandon filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina Education officials over the restrictions on NIL caused by ATHL-008. 247Sports ranks Brandon as the No. 1 overall football player in the Class of 2026.

Brandon, who committed to the University of Tennesee on August 3, would in theory be well positioned for NIL opportunities given his highly ranked status and pending commitment to a major college football brand.

The Brandons’ lawsuit claims that policy ATHL-008 will cost the star quarterback an endorsement offer that was made to him in April and the Board of Education overstepped when enacting the restrictions on NIL.

Should high school athletes be paid in North Carolina?

With the current rules and events that led us to this point clarified, the question of exactly what should happen naturally comes up next.

If the same standard that was set by the SCOTUS decision and the principles of the free market were applied, players should in theory be allowed to be compensated for their likeness if there is another party that is willing to do so. However, as has been seen in college football, that would come with some very serious drawbacks that could threaten the stability of high school athletics in the state.

There would first be the issue of high school sports being professionalized in a way that violates the spirit of what high school athletic competitions currently represent.

Also, high schools from smaller communities with fewer NIL opportunities could struggle to retain their star athletes as they could possibly be unable to compete financially.

There is also the issue that exists presently of private schools not being beholden to the same rules as public schools and possibly having an unfair advantage when it comes to NIL.

As seen in college football, even though there are rules that claim that using NIL as an incentive to induce a player to attend a certain school is not allowed, there are clearly many coaches and fans who are of the opinion that NIL is being used in that fashion and that certainly will always be a concern in a world with NIL for high school athletes.

On the contrary, North Carolina public high schools could also stand to lose out on their star athletes to other schools in other states that do not restrict access to NIL opportunities in a world where the current rules remain in place.

Regardless of where you stand on the matter, the issues pertaining to NIL and player compensation will be at the forefront of the discussion when it comes to the future of high school and collegiate sports.

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