Arizona high school leaders show why careful NIL bylaw drafting, education is vital

Guest writer Daniel Greene | NIL expert and attorney at Newman & Lickstein

During a board meeting in October 2021, the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) passed emergency legislation that said:

“A student is in violation of this bylaw and shall immediately lose eligibility if that student, his/her family member, or anyone else on behalf of that student, enters into an agreement with an individual, corporate entity, partnership, association, or any other party or organization, for use of that student’s NIL which in any way relates to the student’s connection to his/her high school team or activity program, or to any other non-school athletic team or activity program with which the student is connected.”

Many read this legislation as the AIA outlawing NIL for its athletes, including myself. 

This inclination was solidified by a statement in April 2022 to AZ Central by AIA Executive Director David Hines, who said that the organization would not be considering permitting high school athletes to enter into name, image and likeness endorsement deals. Later, at an Executive Board Meeting in May 2023, Leilani Peat, a former Arizona high school athlete who went on to play Division I basketball, “discussed NIL opportunities being missed by student-athletes in Arizona due to the current bylaws in place.”

However, people began to question whether NIL was prohibited by the association when AIA Director of Sports Information Seth Polansky told On3 Arizona doesn’t prohibit student-athletes from making money while in high school, but there are limitations.

Language in bylaw confused many

Polansky told On3 that, for example, “if a high school athlete has an online channel where they promote cosmetic and skin care routines and gets paid for doing just that or an athlete that promotes their family’s landscaping service, then that is allowed. But that’s not NIL. That’s personal and private business. And that’s how the AIA’s amateurism rule is interpreted.”

Polansky’s statement confused me and others. Aren’t those examples exactly what “NIL” is?

This caused me to go back and read AIA’s emergency legislation from 2021 because clearly there was confusion from those who wrote the legislation to those attempting to interpret the legislation.

I believe the confusion lay in the fact that the legislation was written in the negative (i.e., prohibitive language) instead of the positive (i.e., permissive language). A second reading of the language can lead to an interpretation that NIL was permitted by the AIA beginning in 2021. However, based on the aforementioned confusion with the AIA and the public, it does not appear that many high school athletes in the Grand Canyon State understood NIL to be permitted.

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Scottsdale Rancho Solano Prep Athletic Director and boys basketball coach Aaron Trigg has also acknowledged that there are a number of misconceptions about the AIA rules. This was further evidenced by Peat’s appearance in front of the AIA Executive Board to raise concerns about Arizona high schoolers missing NIL opportunities due to the then-current NIL bylaws. Peat’s brother Koa is a five-star basketball player at Perry High School. It does not appear that Koa has activated an NIL deal to date – at least on social media – despite being a highly likely candidate to do so as one of the nation’s best players.

‘Our rule allows NIL’

This confusion was enough for the AIA to propose an amendment to its NIL bylaw to clarify that NIL is in fact permitted by the AIA. They did so by scrapping the “negative” tone and adding language with a “positive” tone:

“A student-athlete may benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) provided the NIL is not connected to his/her AIA-sanctioned high school team or activity program. NIL activities consistent with the guidelines in AIA bylaw 15.11.1.2 will not result in loss of amateur status.”

AIA leaders further clarified things when talking with local media.

“Our rule allows NIL,” AIA assistant executive director Jim Dean told AZ Central. “It always has. This language that the committee brought forward to Legislative Council clarifies that a little further,”

I think this is at least debatable.

Avoiding confusion with high school NIL rules

How could there be so much confusion amongst the people in charge and those relying on the language of the bylaws? There could be a mix of reasons there. But one way to solve this is by providing adequate education to administrators and athletes.

Unfortunately, for one AIA athlete, the lack of education on NIL may have led to his suspension for the 2024 football season. According to the agenda of the AIA Executive Board Meeting scheduled to take place Monday, a Centennial High School football player made a social media post while wearing his team uniform advertising shirts that could be bought on HYPERLETE.com.

Based on the investigation it was determined that the athlete was not aware of NIL restrictions, HYPERLETE never spoke with the athlete’s parents, no purchases of the shirts were made, the athlete made no money, the post was taken down in less than 48 hours and the athlete requested that HYPERLETE remove his page for their site.

While this may seem like a “no harm no foul” situation, it still appears that the athlete will be banned from playing next school year.

The overall situation in Arizona is just another example of why questions need to be asked and education implemented to provide clarity to everyone who may be involved.