CIAC playing NIL dodgeball leaves many unanswered questions

The debate over a shot clock in Connecticut high schools went on for decades before it finally was approved by the CIAC boys and girls basketball committees in September 2021. Even then, its implementation has been delayed until 2023-2024 by request of the state athletic directors.

Once the process is vetted by the membership, the shot clock still needs to be approved by the CIAC Board of Control.

The debate over state co-champions in soccer, meanwhile, went on for many years before the practice mercifully is being put to an end. And the matter of coaches working with their players in the summertime? Good grief, that one might not be solved until 2050, if ever.

The CIAC ordinarily is a slowmoving, grinding operation that involves layers of approval and participation from nearly 200 schools. The deliberate process is by design and, yes, sometimes infuriating.

By stark contrast the implementation by the CIAC of language to its amateur guidelines that allows students to profit off social media, endorse products and be represented by a lawyer/ agent — something that eventually will involve millions of dollars — seemingly came out of nowhere.

It has left so many unanswered questions it’s almost laughable.

Executive director Glenn Lungarini told Hearst Connecticut that the CIAC wasn’t hiding anything. Yet the CIAC also didn’t announce the Board of Control’s unanimous approval to include its name, image and likeness policy in the Amateur Athletic Guidelines section of the CIAC Handbook at the start of the winter season.

Lungarini said because it was a not a bylaw change, approval was only needed by the Board of Control and not the entire legislative body of school principals. Fine.

Yet seeing that NIL rules after NCAA confirmation last summer has become the most debated, most nuanced aspect of “amateur” sports, wouldn’t some period of discussion by state educational leaders involving the public proven helpful as a guiding force. Why the rush? Why the relative secrecy?

We are left with hypothetical after hypothetical and questions about whether there will be sufficient oversight.

Certainly, an announcement of the approval would have been nice, even considerate. Every step of COVID-19 protocols, for example, was presented by the CIAC.

Instead, word of the CIAC approval as the 10th state with NIL guidelines comes out six months after the fact from Opendorse, a multi-platform company designed to maximize an athletes’ brand while safeguarding eligibility.

It’s too late to change any of that, of course. With profiteers

and legal challenges on the horizon, some sort of NIL policy was inevitable. If the CIAC’s intent was to approve the unavoidable in some form without fanfare and then deal with the aftermath several months later … Bravo! Success! Welcome to the aftermath.

Lungarini told Hearst Connecticut as of Monday that he knew of no Connecticut high school athlete taking advantage of the NIL policy. I would submit there are two reasons.

As of this moment there’s no athlete so high profile that they would have access to information from movers and shakers in the business who might have known about the CIAC move. Right now, no student athlete is in line for the seven-figure deals that some have received in other states.

The second reason? Who in Connecticut knew about it all?

Lungarini said after the Board of Control vote it was communicated to the state’s athletic directors. Maybe it wasn’t presented as important, urgent or whatever. I reached out to two highprofile state high school sports administrators, and both said they hadn’t known about the NIL approval.

If they didn’t know, if no one in the media knew, how could have the car dealerships in Greenwich and Darien have known? Or the restaurant in Trumbull or West Hartford?

As we go along here, we surely will see NIL deals.

Will it be a flood? Or a trickle? We have no idea.

What kind of worth will be on these less heralded local NILs? We have no idea.

In an interview, our Mike Fornabaio put out a potential scenario for a problem and Lungarini responded, “There’s no historical perspective to draw on. The first incident, the first opportunity we have to examine with this would be the first. I can’t answer a hypothetical situation.”

Exactly.

The professionalism of high school sports is happening right in front of our eyes. There are concerns. Some are scary.

The definition of an amateur changed many times over a century until it became a quaint anachronism. It had much less to do with purity than with the governing forces trying to control the lion’s share of the finances.

Even an overriding push for the NIL had fascinating rationale. We’re not going to pay the athlete to play. We’re allowing them to cash in on their image created by their popularity. It’s not how many points you scored. It’s how many followers you have on Instagram that determines your worth.

The result is the Wild Wild West … without the guns. We do know the CIAC will not allow athletes to promote firearms, gambling, adult entertainment, alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, controlled dangerous substances and prescription pharmaceuticals.

And we know no high school employee can be involved in an athlete’s NIL (save helping with policy enforcement). So coach’s restaurant can’t sponsor Billy The QB. And the CIAC says athletes can’t use school logos or make references to their products at CIAC events. No “Eat At Jim’s” t-shirts while holding the state championship trophy.

Then again, state lawmakers recently made a change to allow college athletes to use school markings in their NIL appearances. So who’ll be the first to challenge the ruling for Connecticut high school kids?

Beyond that there are no rigid guidelines.

How will this affect kids leaving CIAC schools for prep schools?

Or will the reverse be true? How will this affect kids leaving prep schools to go back to CIAC schools? Don’t know. What’s to stop a sponsor from implying, hey, if you decide to attend this school, there could a sweet NIL awaiting you?

Could this draw a couple of ultra-talented athletes from an urban school facing big challenges to a highly successful program? Not that it hasn’t happened in other ways, but even bigger and perfectly legal now.

What’s to stop a sponsor from some hedge-fund from simply padding a bunch of the fellows’ pockets on the football team just like oldtime boosters? Only now its legal.

Little deals everywhere? And what is the value of an NIL to a mom and pop shop? Or doesn’t it matter that much to a guy who has money and who just loves a program?

I can think of a dozen things that make me squirm.

Think about this. A senior quarterback gets a tidy NIL from a car dealership, throws four interceptions in the opener and the coach wants to make a change. What will the car dealer say? What kind of dissension could that stuff create in the locker room?

And beyond all that, giving money to minors and heaping so much pressure on them, what kind of damage can it do their mental health? That is scary.

The CIAC policy requires athletes to notify their schools of all NIL agreements. There is no central clearinghouse nor organized compilation, although Lungarini said athletes are encouraged to consult the CIAC and NCAA to makes sure they are not putting their amateur status at risk.

High schools aren’t staffed for this kind of stuff. Will they have to hire people as compliance officers? And how could some districts afford it?

I wrote a column last July about high school NILs. It was written in a futuristic manner, the way somebody might write about putting a man on the moon in the 1950s. Well, 1969 and Neil Armstrong showed up overnight and shocked almost all of us.

One small step for the CIAC. One giant leap for potential mayhem.