NIL pay for high schoolers approved by Florida Department of Education, FHSAA

After an 11th hour revision, the Florida High School Athletic Association’s new rule allowing athletes to profit from their Name, Image and Likeness was ratified Wednesday by the State Board of Education.

It is a landmark amendment to FHSAA Bylaw 9.9, which for decades has stipulated conditions required for high school athletes to retain amateur status.

NIL opportunities, with restrictions, are now permitted heading into the 2024-25 school year.

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The FHSAA called for an emergency videoconference Monday for its own 13-member board of directors ahead of the Department of Education gathering at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando. The association added language to the plan unanimously approved on June 4 . Two new lines in Bylaw 9.9.4.2 were inserted to describe actions that the FHSAA prohibits for college-style collectives. That verbiage now reads:

“NIL Collectives include but are not limited to, groups, organizations, or cooperative enterprises that exist to collect funds from donors, individuals, or businesses to:

1. help facilitate NIL deals for student-athletes;

2. facilitate payments to or transfers funds to student-athletes;

3. create ways for athletes to monetize from their NIL; and/or

4. otherwise promote NIL for schools or student-athletes.

The Nos. 2 and 4 sentences are the additions. The FHSAA said they bring Florida in line with rules in other states.

FHSAA executive director Craig Damon told the Sentinel that Monday’s updates were made to emphasize that school booster clubs can raise NIL funds with a key condition.

“As long as boosters are generating funds for the athletic program, it’s fine,” Damon said. “If they start generating funds for an individual athlete, that’s not permissible.”

The new passage states that restraints on “NIL Collectives shall not include school sanctioned team fund-raising.”

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The FHSAA rule approved last month said NIL deals must be negotiated by athletes and families, without involvement of their school, coaches, school district or booster club members. It also says athletes can’t appear with school attire or logos in advertisements, endorsements or promotional appearances.

Kimberly Richey, a DOE senior chancellor who is on the FHSAA board, told the Tampa-based WUSF media outlet last week that Monday’s additions were needed for clarification.

“I think what we are OK with is supporting the athletic program and directly engaging in NIL activities,” Richey said to WUSF.com . “We might be allowing [programs] to engage in collectives [without Monday’s changes], which we would not be OK with.”

Damon was on hand to speak Wednesday and answered a number of questions before the restructured by-law in place was okayed.

“When you look at high schools it’s completely different from what’s happening at the college level,” Damon said during discussion. “As we learn more about NIL we’re going to share that information with our schools and students. The last thing we want to do is let our student-athletes be taken advantage of by bad actors.”

Esther Byrd asked if the FHSAA can create a listing of all NIL agreements. Damon said his staff will create a registration process, similar to what Georgia has in place.

Ryan Petty, vice chair of the education committee, asked if the FHSAA can provide a sample contract to provide businesses and families guidelines. Damon said that too can and will be done.

Chairman Ben Gibson, an attorney, said it was important to approve the NIL plan with schools opening next month. He told Damon that DOE will continue to partner with the FHSAA to monitor and update Florida’s NIL policy as needed.

Prior to the 2024 rewriting of 9.9, FHSAA amateur status rules prohibited athletes from “capitalizing on athletic fame by receiving money or gifts of a monetary nature.”

Shortly after Florida Statute 1006.74 went into effect in the summer 2021, making the state the first to allow college athletes to receive NIL compensation, the FHSAA reminded member schools that its amateurism rule prohibited NIL deals.

“A student participating for a FHSAA member school who capitalizes on his/her athletic fame by receiving money or gifts of a monetary nature will forfeit his/her amateur status and eligibility in a sport for one year,” stated then-FHSAA executive director George Tomyn.

But as college NIL deals began to unfold — causing much consternation for college coaches and the NCAA — and 37 states adopted rules allowing deals for high schoolers, the FHSAA was pressured to act. The longstanding governing body for Florida high school sports began official discussions on NIL in a fall 2023 meeting.

Varsity content editor Buddy Collings can be contacted by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.