Craig Young on whether NIL should be available to high school athletes

Alabama quarterback Bryce Young may now be one of the most valuable amateur athletes in the United States but he never had to worry about making money in high school.

But if Young was just a few years younger and playing his high school football now, it would be a very different equation.

High schoolers in certain states across the country are eligible to sign NIL deals, and Young’s father, Craig, has some thoughts on the matter.

Craig Young appeared on the second episode of the LeverUp NIL Show with Shannon Terry and Jim Cavale to discuss a variety of topics. One of those topics was NIL tricking down to high school and what he thought of the matter.

“That’s a great question,” Young said. “I think I’ll answer it like this. If you’re a child actor or a child pianist, and you have a you have a gift and a skill in any other state, you would be compensated for that. I think a high school athlete — his skills, his profile, his work — is being able to garner that attention, again, I feel that we live in a society where we compensate for the ability to have partnerships, for the ability to make money.”

While Young is all for people earning the money that should be afforded to them, he is also hesitant of the systems in place. He doesn’t want young athletes to be taken for a ride.

“My hesitation and my pause for that was not because of NIL and the concept of compensating athletes in high school,” Young said. “My pause was the cottage industry that can be manifest by that where we’re having people who sometimes don’t have the athlete’s best interests at heart, targeting families and young kids at middle schools and all that stuff because they see the potential NIL deals. So those are things that give me pause. However, generally speaking, I don’t have an issue with NIL in high school.”