NCHSAA approves NIL for North Carolina high schoolers

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association‘s board of directors approved a policy proposal on Wednesday that allows high school athletes in North Carolina to pursue name, image and likeness opportunities starting July 1, 2023. North Carolina is the 27th state, plus the District of Columbia, where a governing body has allowed high school athletes to sign NIL deals.

The high school athletic association in a state is typically the governing body that allows high school athletes to enter into NIL agreements, under some limitations within its bylaws. However, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill into law in April that grants NIL rights to high school athletes who have been admitted to or signed a National Letter of Intent to attend a university in the state.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the NCHSAA’s policy committee recommended that the board of directors approve the policy Wednesday, which the board did.

NCHSAA’s NIL policy

The policy states athletes “may engage in certain commercial activities to receive tangible benefits,” including appearances, athlete-owned brands, autographs, camps, clinics, group licensing, in-kind deals, instruction, NFTs, product endorsements, promotional activities and social media.

School personnel can’t use NIL deals for recruitment and enrollment, facilitate deals or act as an agent. Athletes can’t receive compensation for their athletic performance.

It’s prohibited for athletes to participate in NIL activities involving adult entertainment, alcohol, cannabis products, controlled substances, firearms and ammunition, gambling, prescription pharmaceuticals, or tobacco, vaping or nicotine-related products. Athletes can’t be affiliated with their school, conference or the NCHSAA during NIL activities and they can’t participate in activities that interrupt their academics during the school day.

Before high school athletes participate in an NIL deal, they have to disclose their NIL agreements with their coach and athletic director. The athletic director has to submit NIL agreements to the NCHSAA.

Athletes, parents and legal guardians, coaches, athletic directors and principals have to complete the National Federation of State High School Associations NIL course annually before the first competition.

A violation of the policy would make an athlete ineligible for 60 days. Prior to reinstatement, the violation that caused the ineligibility “must be rectified.”

Under the NCHSAA’s existing amateur rule, students or teams aren’t allowed to accept money or accept a gift or merchandise that exceeds $250 in value per season and that isn’t “totally consumable and nontransferable.”

North Carolina regularly produces blue-chip recruits

Notably, North Carolina is one of the most talent-rich states where high school athletes can now pursue NIL opportunities. The Louisiana High School Athletic Association approved NIL deals with a vote in April 2022, while the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association did so last December.

In February, TSSAA Executive Director Mark Reeves told On3, “I think that’s been the general consensus with other directors I’ve talked to – that it’s certainly a much smaller scale and smaller deals and not as big of an issue as maybe people might have feared when it was first being discussed.”

In the 2023 recruiting class, North Carolina produced 14 four- or five-star football prospects and three in men’s basketball.

Based on the results of the 2023 NFL draft, North Carolina ranked 13th nationally in its draft talent ratio, which measures the percentage of drafted former blue-chip prospects nationally who are from the state compared to the percent of the U.S. population who lives in the state. North Carolina’s draft talent ratio was 115%, which means its share of total former blue-chip prospects who were drafted is just higher than the percent of the U.S. population that lives in the state.

There are four ACC institutions in North Carolina – Duke, North Carolina, NC State and Wake Forest.