GREENSBORO, N.C. — Star athletes on the high school level across North Carolina ruled athletes can agree to NIL deals, starting July 1.
Northern Guilford High School sophomores Olivia Bayer and Malena Delisa's ability to make buckets and win games could mean they could cash in on their talents before even getting to college.
“Everybody is going to want to work harder for this and to benefit from this if you want to play at the high level,” Delisa said.
Their basketball coach Josh Evan is excited to see his athletes get a new opportunity.
“It’s new to us but it’s something that's been going on across the country so I’m excited to learn more about it and how athletes can benefit from it,” Evan said.
Coach Evans is right. Name, image and likeness or NIL deals for high school athletes are not unheard of.
The state's high school Athletic Association voted to make North Carolina the 28th state to add an NIL policy.
Jarvis Harris's daughter Jasmine is a standout basketball player at Northern Guilford.
"She's received a few inquiries through social media saying we'd like for you to be a brand ambassador and it did spark questions like what can and what cant she does," Harris said.
This change gives Harris and more than 180,000 other student athletes statewide guidelines to follow.
Before signing any contracts students, parents, coaches and athletic directors will have to take an educational course.
Something east Forsyth head football coach Todd Willert thinks is a good idea.
I deal with a lot of D1 and D2 coaches and the problems money has brought into the locker room. There's going to be a lot of kids that don't make money and it makes it tough," Willert said.
There are some restrictions.
For example, neither schools nor coaches can't facilitate the deals or use NIL as an incentive to enroll at a specific school.
The change is *expected* to take affect July 1st but there's still some uncertainty.
The state senate wants the board of education to make NIL rules *not* the athletic association. Lawmakers have filed a bill to change that.
The state's high school athletic associations say students with these deals in other states are getting an average of $60 to 120 dollars.
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