UIL remaining hesitant on allowing NIL
SAN ANTONIO — Even if state lawmakers change legislation to allow high school athletes in Texas to profit off their name, image and likeness, the University Interscholastic League may not be ready to give the green light.
“Given what we’ve seen across the country at the NCAA level, given what we’ve seen in some of those states that have allowed it at the high school level, I’m not sure there’s going to be much of an appetite for it,” UIL deputy director Jamey Harrison said Sunday at the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention.
Texas is among 26 states that prohibit high school athletes from benefiting from NIL, according to endorsement platform Opendorse. There are 13 states that allow high school athletes to profit: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota and Utah.
Any decision from the UIL’s legislative committee would have to wait until the Texas Legislature makes a change to current laws. Passed last summer, Senate Bill 1385 prohibits any individual or corporate entity to enter into any NIL arrangement with a student athlete “prior to their enrollment in an institution of higher education.”
“Until there is some movement there, there will be no change from the UIL,” Harrison said. “And even if there was movement there, we would have to see in what way it moves, what kind of guardrail they put around it.”
Fisher in favor of expanding playoff
Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher favors expanding the College Football Playoff.
“I think it’s got to be at least 12 (teams), but I wouldn’t be against 16,” Fisher said Sunday during an appearance at the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention.
Any change to the current four-team playoff won’t occur until the current contract expires following the 2025 season.
“When that expands is when the TV contract is going to be renewed,” Fisher said. “They are not going to give more content for the same amount of money. When that contract goes up in ’25, you watch the playoff is going to go to 12 or 16 teams.”
Texas A&M was left out of the playoff in the 2020 season, despite winning its final seven games following a Week 2 loss to eventual national champion Alabama. The Aggies finished fifth in the CFP rankings behind Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Notre Dame.
Fisher said an expanded playoff field would generate some late-season excitement.
“At the end of the year, when you’ve got four (teams in the playoff ), or two or three other teams legit — maybe four in a great year,” Fisher said. “But if you’ve got 16 (playoff teams), there are going to be 30, 35 teams that would legitimately have a chance to get into that playoff.”
Baylor and TCU, the Big 12’s co-champs in 2014, also could have benefited from an expanded playoff. Even at 11-1, the Bears finished just short at No. 5 in the rankings while the Horned Frogs were one spot back.
“You want a chance to win the whole thing,” Baylor coach Dave Aranda said. “When that opportunity is given to you it makes for great drama.”
Fisher brought up the example of Mississippi, which won the College World Series after being the last team to make the NCAA baseball field.
“There are more teams that can make those runs and can be Cinderella so to speak,” Aranda said. “I think it (playoff expansion) is coming.”
Fisher was also asked his thoughts on so-called “super conferences” with Texas and Oklahoma set to join the Southeastern Conference no later than 2025 and USC and UCLA on the move to the Big Ten in 2024.
“I don’t know if they are a good thing, but they are here to stay,” Fisher said.